Fox News, on Climate, 6 November 2026

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Florida dad makes final FaceTime call to wife before dying in flash flood

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A Florida father died after his vehicle became trapped in flash floodwaters, with his wife now sharing the details of a desperate final call before his death. Joshua Bennett, 34, of Palm Bay, died Monday after , along Florida's east-central coast. Bennett had reportedly left home to buy coffee when he encountered the rising floodwaters, according to WESH 2 News. MOM OF 2 WHO DIED RESCUING SONS DURING BAHAMAS SNORKELING TRIP IS IDENTIFIED His wife, Stacy Petit Bennett, told the outlet her husband called her in a panic as his truck became surrounded by floodwaters on San Filippo Drive.

"He called me on FaceTime, and he was just crying, like, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do,'" Stacy Petit Bennett said. "And he said he's in the middle of a river, and his car is, like, submerged with water all around." Stacy Petit Bennett urged her husband to break a window before the call abruptly disconnected. She said she called 911 and spent hours trying to get help for her husband. NURSE IMPALED BY POLE DURING HIKE FORCED TO TREK 10 MILES FOR HELP: 'A FREAK THING' Bennett's widow described him as an "amazing husband and dad."

"Every life is important, and everyone deserves a chance to be rescued. To be saved. He was just 34 years old. His kids are young," she said, according to WESH 2 News. Bennett was a father of four, including three children with special needs, according to his wife. His children include twin daughters who were born prematurely. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER His wife said their children have been asking when their father would be coming home.

"He's not here. I don't have my support system. They don't have their father," Stacy Petit Bennett said. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS Bennett was one of two people who died during the flooding in Brevard County. The other victim, Archie Richards, 78, was found dead inside his vehicle near Richards Lane and Hall Road, according to WESH 2 News, citing the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ Fox News Digital reached out to Brevard County officials for more information.

Other deadly flooding incidents have claimed lives in recent months. In October, a 24-year-old French travel influencer was among three women killed in Nicaragua when a pickup truck carrying travelers was swept away by strong currents. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Earlier this summer, a Utah family of five died after flash floodwaters swept through a hiking and canyoneering area near Sunglow Campground in Fishlake National Forest.

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What we found (1)

Fox News tells the story of Joshua Bennett, who died in his truck in a Brevard County flash flood, mostly through his widow's account, and it names the second victim. The article describes the cause only as heavy rainfall and never says this was a historic downpour or that warming makes extreme rainfall more frequent. In a human-interest piece with no supplied attribution study for this storm, that gap is minor.

  1. Leaves out the climate link

    Minor

    “heavy rainfall triggered flooding in Brevard County”

    Why this matters
    Fox News gives the cause of the deadly flooding only as "heavy rainfall". It says nothing about the scale of the storm or any link to warming.
    The impression it gives
    A reader comes away thinking this was an ordinary bout of heavy rain, with no wider pattern behind it.
    The context
    The New York Post reported that the storm was historic, with up to 20 inches of rain in 12 hours. The documented record shows that warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more intense. No attribution study for this storm is supplied, so this is missing general context in a human story, not a misleading account of the event.

    How we know

    Show it in the article

What it gets right

  • “The other victim, Archie Richards, 78, was found dead inside his vehicle”

    Fox News names the second person who died and attributes the detail to the sheriff's office through WESH 2, so the toll is not left as a bare number.

  • “A Florida father died after his vehicle became trapped in flash floodwaters”

    The article opens with the person and what happened to him, in plain words, rather than an abstract weather toll.

  • “She said she called 911 and spent hours trying to get help for her husband”

    It keeps the widow's account of the failed attempt to get help, attributed to her, so readers see the human consequence.

How other outlets reported it

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