As someone who grew up in eastern North Carolina, Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers knows firsthand the devastation a natural disaster can cause. And while Peppers was still young when Hurricane Hugo rolled through in 1989, he knows how damaging a storm can be. So last weekend, even as the Panthers traveled to Atlanta to face the Falcons, Peppers kept his eye on how Hurricane Florence was impacting not only Charlotte, but also the…

J. Cole’s inaugural Dreamville Festival, a major multi-act concert, has a new date. The new date is April 6, 2019, at Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park, organizers said Friday, and it will benefit hurricane victims in the Carolinas. Cole will headline the festival, as he had planned to when it was supposed to debut Saturday, Sept. 15, as the first major concert at Dix Park. The lineup of performers will be announced at a later date….

Hurricane floodwaters have been sucking coffins out of the ground at Goldsboro’s Elmwood Cemetery for more than 20 years, so city officials decided to try something new as Hurricane Florence neared the coast Friday. Their solution involved sandbags: Not to keep the flood water out, but to keep the coffins down. More than 1,200 sandbags were piled atop 200 graves “prone to displacement,” Goldsboro cemetery director Timothy Irving told North Carolina Health News. It worked,…

The Carolina Hurricanes have reduced their roster to 39 players in preseason training camp, assigning eight players Friday to the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The players assigned were forwards Steven Lorentz, Cliff Pu, Aleksi Saarela and Spencer Smallman; defensemen Josiah Didier, Michael Fora and Josh Wesley, and goaltender Jeremy Helvig. The Checkers’ training camp begins Monday at Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte. Among the players invited to the Checkers camp is Trevor Owens, a Raleigh…

South Carolina drivers have been frustrated all week as one of the state’s main highways has shut down due to hurricane-related flooding. That frustration may have come to an end once and for all on Friday, as the state Department of Transportation was preparing to reopen all lanes of Interstate 95. The interstate was intermittently closed to traffic throughout the week as roadways flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. On Friday, DOT announced all…

Gov. Roy Cooper and other state officials on Friday continued to warn people to be cautious on roads and not to travel to coastal areas affected by Tropical Storm Florence. Flooding is expected to continue through next week, officials said, and in some places longer. “The opening and closing of roads are changing as the flooding continues,” Cooper said at his press briefing at the emergency operations center in west Raleigh. “I can’t stress enough,…

By Adam Owens, WRAL reporter The Cumberland county town of Spring Lake has lifted its curfew but town officials are still warning residents to be cautious as damage from Florence is widespread. Early Friday, there was a line outside the Spring Lake Fire Department as town officials handed out the basics to those suffering after the storm. Some of the items included food, baby supplies and cleaning supplies. The need highlights how much people lost…