Charlotte North Carolina News

The death toll blamed on Hurricane Florence stands at 13in North Carolina and 6 in South Carolina, including two bodies recovered Monday morning in Union County, N.C. The dead include people who drowned, were electrocuted, crushed by trees, “thrown by the wind” and carbon monoxide poisoning, media outlets and government agencies report. The death toll rose Monday morning when an unidentified man’s body was found in the flood waters in Union County, N.C. WSOC reported…

A widely shared photo purporting to show CNN’s Anderson Cooper exaggerating Florence-related flooding comes with some credibility problems of its own. The photo of Cooper reporting from waist-deep water while a camera crew stands in ankle-deep water a few steps away has gone viral on social media, with Donald Trump Jr. and others using it to blast media coverage of Florence, which hit the Carolinas as a hurricane Friday. “Stop Lying to try to make…

Our reporters and photojournalists are in the field throughout the Carolinas reporting on the effects of Florence. Their Sunday reports are here and their Saturday reporters are here. You can follow them at https://twitter.com/newsobserver/lists/hurricane-mcclatchy Spring Lake, NC: ‘A thing I love has become so dangerous’ Natalie Allen said she’s “heartbroken.” She was evacuated from her second-floor apartment in Spring Lake near Fort Bragg by Spring Lake Fire-Rescue on Monday when the nearby Little River swelled…

Florence is being blamed for at least one death in the Charlotte region. A tree fell on a mobile home in Gaston County near Dallas Sunday, killing 3-month old Kade Gill.  The Gaston Gazette reports Kade Gill and his mother Tammy Gill were on the couch when the tree crashed through their home off Old Willis School Road.  The tree landed between the kitchen and living room of the home and pinned the boy against…

This story was updated at 7:30 a.m. Monday. Rescue workers in Union County planned to resume their search Monday morning for a 1-year-old boy who was swept away in floodwaters on Sunday. In Dallas, N.C., an infant boy was the first person killed by the storm in the Charlotte area. The 3-month-old died after a large pine tree fell on his mobile home Sunday afternoon, Gaston County police confirmed. Sunday was also the day 3-month-old…

Here’s what a flash flood looks like. It’s midday Sunday here on US 74 Business in Whiteville in Columbia County, where rising waters from a swamp are rushing over the road. A swift water rescue team from Illinois is here with several trucks and a boat, trying to get east to help out with the storm. Thomas Conner is sitting in his SUV nearby watching. He says after a couple of days indoors, he’s been…

GASTON COUNTY, NC (AP) – The death toll attributed to Florence stands at 17, including 11 in North Carolina and six in South Carolina as officials said a 3-month-old died when a tree landed on a mobile home.  The South Carolina Highway Patrol says a pickup truck was traveling west on Interstate 20 in Kershaw County on Sunday morning when it went off the roadway. Troopers say the truck struck an overpass support beam, and the…

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Monday morning that emergency workers found the body of Kaiden Lee-Welch, a 1-year-old boy swept away in rushing water Sunday. The boy’s mother was driving east on N.C. 218 toward Wadesboro, in northern Union County, Sunday evening. Investigators said there were barricades on the road, which was flooded by nearby Richardson Creek. The woman drove around the barricades, according to a statement from the Union County Sheriff’s Office, and…

PHOENIX, Ariz. (KSAZ) – One Valley man says the recent images of now Tropical Depression Florence lashing the Carolinas brought back difficult memories for him.  The images coming out of the Carolinas is almost too much to bear for Scott Hodges. “It was kind of a shock for me,” said Hodges. He had to be evacuated 10 years ago when Hurricane Ike came ashore in Texas as a strong category two hurricane, leaving a path…

WILMINGTON ,NC (AP) – As rain from Florence continued to lash the Carolinas, the region’s swollen rivers were beginning to swamp coal ash dumps and low-lying hog farms Sunday, raising pollution concerns. Duke Energy said the collapse of a coal ash landfill at the L.V. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington, North Carolina, is an “on-going situation,” with an unknown amount of potentially contaminated storm water flowing into a nearby lake. At a different power plant…

The heaviest rainfall from Tropical Depression Florence may be over for the Charlotte region. Even though the rain is likely to taper off Sunday night, rivers are expected to crest later in the week. There are downed trees and power lines scattered throughout Charlotte, but there’s not widespread damage from wind or rain. In Steele Creek in southwest Charlotte, which doesn’t have a large tree canopy, there were few fallen limbs. The area looked as…

In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, The Husk in Wilmington opened its doors using a generator to let fans watch the Carolina Panthers. Credit: WJZY In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, The Husk in Wilmington opened its doors using a generator to let fans watch the Carolina Panthers. Credit: WJZY WILMINGTON, NC (FOX 46 WJZY) – Despite mass power outages and destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, a Wilmington bar opened its doors to…

A tractor-trailer overturned on Interstate 85 northbound, closing the roadway as the effects of Hurricane Florence made their way into the Charlotte area. The Panera Bread truck appeared to have hit the barrier, flipping over. I-85 northbound was shut down as crews worked to clear. As of 2:30 p.m. the road was still closed. It’s unclear if weather played a factor in the accident.