67-Year-Old Meteorologist Al Roker Gets Slammed By Waves Reporting On Hurricane Ida, Has A Message For Critics

 

On NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, the 67-year-old veteran TV meteorologist, Al Roker appeared in a full-body wet suit from New Orleans — and was consistently slammed by waves from Lake Pontchartrain as Hurricane Ida came down on the area.

“I guess we lost communication,” Roker said to broadcaster Chuck Todd at one point, as crushing waves overwhelmed him and retreated back into the sea.

“It’s basically a 15-mile-wide F3 tornado,” said the wind- and water-lashed weatherman, describing to the storm’s scale and intensity.

The video immediately went viral, with alarmed viewers questioning why someone Roker’s age would risk danger and injury to relay information he could get from the National Weather Service without leaving his home.

“Al roker is 67 lmao nbc doing him dirty,” said Twitter user @iam johnw2.

@Rizaebellepow wrote, “It’s 2021. I don’t need to see Al Roker risking his life and his crew’s lives to show me a hurricane. It can be reported on without standing outside in the middle of it.”

Roker later appeared on MSNBC to inform viewers that he was not in danger — and to address to some who claimed he was too old to be out in the storm at all.

“Some people are like, ‘He’s too old to be doing this.’ Hey, guess what, screw you! Try to keep up!” Roker said.

Roker also posted a video on Twitter of himself emptying water from his boots in his hotel bathroom.

“I brought back a little bit of Lake Pontchartrain with me,” he says in the video.

“I volunteered to come out here. This is what I do. I’ve done this for 40 years.”

“These young punks, I will come after them,” he joked. “I will drop them like a bag of dirt.”