Month: March 2019

A window-rattling late winter storm brought blizzards, floods and a tornado across more than 25 states Wednesday, stretching from the northern Rocky Mountains to Texas and beyond. “This is a very epic cyclone,” said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center. “We’re looking at something that will go down in the history books.” In Colorado, a state patrol officer was hit and killed by a car…

By Mike Maze, WRAL meteorologist In September, Hurricane Florence dumped 8 trillion gallons of water across North Carolina. It happened just two years after Hurricane Matthew brought devastating rainfall to the same area. Both Matthew and Florence brought record flooding to North Carolina’s rivers. During Matthew, the Lumber River in Lumberton crested at 28 feet, the highest it ever had. That record was shattered when Florence crested the river just two years later at 29…

By Amanda Lamb, WRAL reporter Pender County, N.C. — Pender County was one of the hardest hit areas when Hurricane Florence pounded North Carolina six months ago. When WRAL News arrived at the scene two months after Florence, everything was a mess with debris strewn everywhere. Residents didn’t know what they were going to do. Six months later, not much has changed. Maraskeshi Brown lives in a FEMA trailer but she visits her family’s gutted…

By Adam Owens, WRAL reporter New Bern, N.C. — Many people took their chances during Hurricane Florence. Barbara Saunders was one of them. Six months later, she says she regrets it. Water was rising around her New Bern apartment. Her granddaughter was there, too. WRAL’s reporter Adam Owens and photojournalist Mark Stebnicki found her during the storm, nervously considering her options. “I have never known water could be so powerful,” Saunders said. “And then that,…

By Cullen Browder, WRAL anchor/reporter Goldsboro, N.C. — Staris Morgan gets up every day to fight bureaucracy. “There’s a lot of others that have lost. I’m one that has kept fighting,” Morgan said. She says she has no choice because she has nowhere to live. After Hurricane Matthew swallowed her Goldsboro home in 2016, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid some rental assistance and just enough money to tear out the flood damage. Goldsboro required…

By Gilbert Baez, WRAL reporter Fayetteville, N.C. — Six months after Hurricane Florence, communities are still recovering from flooding that washed away the dreams of many families and business owners. Hurricane Florence devastated many of the homes in the Cedar Falls community in Fayetteville. Water from Lock’s Creek turned Bombay Drive into a river, flooding cars and homes. Weeks after the storm, debris lined the streets and residents said help was slow to arrive. “Pretty…

Capitol Broadcasting Company is stepping in to help those impacted by the deadly tornadoes in Alabama earlier this month. Among the 23 victims that were killed, seven were members of one family. Erroll Reese is a host of the Sports Shop on the Buzz radio station and he’s a special part of the CBC family. He is planning to head down to Alabama to see the devastation first hand next week. He plans to take…