Raleigh North Carolina News

By Jessica Patrick, WRAL.com editor As parts of North Carolina begin feeling the impacts of Hurricane Florence, who will see the worst of the storm and when? At 11 p.m., Florence was about 60 miles from Wilmington and moving toward landfall at 6 mph. The storm is projected to make landfall near Wilmington as a Category 1 hurricane Friday morning.  The coast North Carolina’s coastal communities were already experiencing strong winds and rain Thursday, hours before…

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WTVD) — The coastal towns of Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach are prepared as they can be now that the outer bands of Hurricane Florence are hitting. Business owners in downtown Wilmington have closed and boarded up their storefronts and for good reasons. The water levels of the Cape Fear River are expected to rise and cause flooding. Wrightsville Beach has been closed since the mandatory evacuation went into effect 8 p.m. on Wednesday…

Molly Goldston knew she wanted to save dogs from county animal shelters that, because of forthcoming Hurricane Florence, might have to euthanize them. So earlier this week her Wake Forest adoption center, Saving Grace, accepted about two dozen dogs from shelters around the state and amassed a total of 124 — dozens more than it houses in a typical week. Goldston didn’t know, however, how many of the dogs she’d be able to place in…

While Florence is not as strong as it once was, it will still havemajor impacts on the local weather and across a large part of Northand South Carolina. The size of Florence has grown quite large withtropical storm-force winds cover a diameter of more than 450 miles.This immense storm is slowing and expected to just crawl once itreaches the southeast coast of North Carolina near Wilmington Fridaymorning. It will move west-southwest or southwest for a…

World Central Kitchen, the disaster relief group formed by famous chef Jose Andres, is already camped out and serving meals in North Carolina as Hurricane Florence approaches land. Volunteers with the international organization team up with local chefs and kitchens and distribute meals to shelters. Between Raleigh and Wilmington, the organization is prepared to serve 150,000 meals, executive director Nate Mook said in an interview. Mook said the sheer size of Hurricane Florence and its…

Drowning rain and Neuse River flooding inundated roads in New Bern and greater Craven County on Thursday with conditions worsening into the night as Hurricane Florence hovered off the North Carolina coast. “We’re expecting conditions to continue to deteriorate,” said Amber Parker, the county’s human resources director, on Thursday afternoon. Before midnight, they had. A map sent out by the City of New Bern showed just how widespread the flooding had become. The North Carolina…

Man has tearful reunion with dog 3 months after the pit bull was kidnapped Prak Dara and his girlfriend Kara Hills were reunited with their dog, Titan, on June 3 after he had been kidnapped from his home in Katy, Texas, three months prior. Titan was found almost 1,000 miles away in Greenville, SC thanks to his microchip.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — “Do not underestimate the storm.” That was the message from Governor Roy Cooper Thursday morning as state officials gave a briefing about Hurricane Florence at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh. “Don’t relax, don’t get complacent” Governor Cooper said. “Stay on guard. This is a powerful storm that can kill.” Governor Cooper said there are about 108 shelters open in the state with more than 7,000 people staying in them and…

Plenty of myths about storms are floating around Hurricane Florence. If a “fact” sounds too incredible to be true, then it’s usually not. But there are exceptions. Brittany Bell, a meteorologist at ABC11 in Raleigh, helped us show that a few things that sound wrong about Hurricane Florence are actually right. True: Hurricane Florence is huge, as big as Michigan. Hurricane Florence may have downgraded to a category 2, but the storm is still massive….

List of area hurricane shelters, emergency operations centers POWER OUTAGE MAP: More than 166,000 in North Carolina affected VIDEO: Hurricane Florence causes significant damage before eye hits Useful tips if you lose power/Si no tiene electricidad después del huracán LIVE VIDEO: Continuing coverage as Hurricane Florence lashes NC coast

The National Weather Service issued a tropical storm warning for Wake, Johnston, Chatham and Nash counties shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, as Hurricane Florence continues to come ashore along the southeastern coast. Durham and Orange counties were not covered by the warning, and that’s not likely to change, said James Morrow, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Raleigh. A tropical storm warning means that winds of 36 mph or higher are possible. But…

By Kelly Hinchcliffe, WRAL education reporter Raleigh, N.C. — Imagine being at home for five days straight with no power, no way to get anywhere in a car and no store nearby to get supplies. How would you prepare for that, and what supplies would you gather ahead of time? That’s what local emergency officials want you to imagine so you can prepare for Hurricane Florence. WRAL News interviewed local EMS and 911 center leaders…

Thousands of homeowners in inland North and South Carolina stand to be inundated by Hurricane Florence’s drenching over the next few days, but hardly any of them carry federal flood insurance, leaving them at risk of a devastating loss, with little prospect of help from the federal government. A McClatchy analysis of federal data shows that in the coastal counties, a relatively high percentage of households carry flood insurance policies, but the percentage drops off…

The storm surge from Hurricane Florence has begun to make some highways impassable in Eastern North Carolina. N.C. 12 is closed on Hatteras Island, and parts of U.S. 70 are shut down between Beaufort and Atlantic, as floodwaters covered the pavement in numerous places, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation. NCDOT said many secondary roads in Carteret County also are overtopped with water and that conditions were expected to get worse through the evening….

Hurricane Florence wasn’t expected to make landfall until Friday morning, but residents in coastal areas were already losing power as fierce gusts lashed the eastern edge of North Carolina. More than 181,000 residents and businesses, mostly in eastern counties, were without power as of 11:30 p.m., according to online updates from Duke Energy, the N.C. Electric Cooperatives and smaller utility companies. The surge in power outages along the coast was the result of gusts coming…