TRYON, N.C. (WNCN/WSPA) – Two TV station workers who were covering severe weather died Monday in Polk County, North Carolina, in an incident on Highway 176.
According to Polk County Local Government’s Facebook page, the crash, involving an SUV and a tree, resulted in two fatalities.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol said a WYFF-TV news SUV was traveling south on U.S. Highway 176 around 2:30 p.m. when a tree fell on the vehicle.
The passenger and driver died in the incident.
WYFF later identified the victims as reporter/anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer, who were in the area to cover severe weather spawned by subtropical storm Alberto.
“All of us at WYFF News 4 are grieving. We are a family and we thank you, our extended family, for your comfort as we mourn and as we seek to comfort the families of Mike and Aaron,” the TV station wrote on their website.
Anchor Carol Goldsmith said on air that McCormick and Smeltzer were “beloved members of our team – our family.”
Officials at the scene told WSPA that there was a mudslide that occurred in the area. Officials said this crash was not related to the mudslide.
WYFF is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed in Greenville, South Carolina serving Upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina.
Polk County officials said the N.C. State Highway Patrol is handling the investigation and that U.S. Highway 176 is shut down between Thompson Road in Saluda and Harmon Field Road in Tryon.
The public is being asked to avoid the area.
North Carolina State Highway Patrol said Highway 176 is shut down due to a mudslide.
Monday’s mudslide is near the same scene where a woman was killed in her home May 19 by a mudslide and also where people were trapped inside a restaurant.
