Alberto severe weather a photographer and TV anchor killed while reporting

Alberto Raning

Severe weather North Carolina-South Carolina border that killed a TV anchor and a photographer, a TV station (South Carolina) reported Monday evening.

Anchor and reporter Mike McCormick and photographer Aaron Smeltzer, who worked for WYFF-TV, Greenville, South Carolina, were traveling a little before 2:30 p.m. ET on U.S. 176 near Tryon, North Carolina, when a tree fell on their station's vehicle, WYFF-TV reported. The area is about 25 miles northwest of the TV station.

Smeltzer and McCormick

"I had done an interview with Mr. McCormick about 10 minutes before we got the call," Tryon Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant said. "And we had talked a little bit about how he wanted us to stay safe and I wanted him to stay safe."