Charlotte North Carolina News

Especially during extreme weather, television meteorologists get lots of attention. But behind every successful TV weather report there’s a quiet force of 20,000 dedicated amateurs. Meet the “weather weenies,” a group of volunteers who diligently empty their rain gauges and record the results each morning. They’re participating in the national Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, which goes by the acronym CoCoRaHS. The data these volunteers collect help fill in holes in the official…

GASTON COUNTY, NC (FOX 46 WJZY) – At a Friday conference call with FEMA, federal officials warned of widespread power outages, tree damage and “a lot of urban flooding issues.” “Heavy rain, flash flooding, still a major threat for the area,” FEMA told Gaston County officials. Eric Hendrix, the interim Gaston County emergency management coordinator and fire marshal, said they are “absolutely serious” about preparing. Hendrix warns it could take days for power to be…

The Carteret County Human Society is taking on water. Its roof is collapsing. The shelter needs immediate help to evacuate 123 dogs and cats, shelter manager Cassandra Tupaj told The News & Observer at 7:30 p.m. Friday. “We need large vehicles that can get through water,” Tupaj said. “I was told that it’s passable with an F250 (truck).” The shelter also needs a place, like a large business nearby, that can temporarily hold the 43…

National Hurricane Center predictions that Hurricane Florence would “pile up water” along the North Carolina coast came true on Friday, when the storm broke multiple tide records, some dating back more than six decades. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide gauge in Wrightsville Beach reached 4.11 feet above high tide on Friday, breaking a record set by Hurricane Joaquin in 2015 by more than a foot, NOAA officials said. That’s more than 4 feet…

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (KTVU) – A group of strangers from around the country came together to help a help a woman who was planning to “hunker down” with her seven dogs in Hurricane Florence.  As Christine Meinhold spoke on CNN about how she didn’t have a working car and was unable to evacuate from Myrtle Beach, people around the country became concerned.  Meinhold told CNN that she was responsible for her seven rescue dogs and refused to abandon…

North Carolina’s wild horse herd has weathered Florence’s fury. “They are survivors,” herd manager Meg Puckett told The News & Observer on Friday. Ahead of the storm, then a powerful Category 4, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF), a nonprofit which manages the herd, posted on Facebook that the wild mustangs that make the Outer Banks their home would manage just fine without help, even in the face of heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. A…

American Red Cross Shelters in Charlotte are still registering people at local high schools to wait out Hurricane Florence. Officials at American Red Cross shelters set up to house people during Hurricane Florence are still busy registering local residents and those who evacuated from coastal areas. More than 360 people registered at the various area shelters by Thursday night, 55 at East Mecklenburg High School. The East Mecklenburg High shelter is one of 12 that…

Florence was downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. update. The storm dropped to sustained winds of 70 mph. A category 1 hurricane must have winds of at least 74 mph. The “erratic” storm made landfall Friday morning near Wrightsville Beach, as North Carolina first responders and the governor reported the first four deaths associated with the storm. Wilmington police reported that a tree…

Heavy rain is expected to bring weekend flooding to Charlotte, and it’s the city’s oldest neighborhoods that could face the highest risks. More than 2,400 properties sit in areas that the city’s storm water experts consider at the “highest risk” of flooding. Many of these properties are in floodplains that border waterways and that make a massive ring around uptown. Tim Trautman, the city’s storm water engineering and mitigation program manager, said there are floodplains…

As Hurricane Florence makes its way over the Carolinas, dumping rain that in some places is being measured in feet rather than inches, the flooding danger presented by overflowing rivers grows greater. The worst flooding will likely start Saturday night or Sunday morning, according to predictions from the National Weather Service, and will continue for at least several days. The Triangle will not be as affected as much of eastern North Carolina. “Life threatening, catastrophic…

As Hurricane Florence rumbled across the Atlantic Ocean last week, a group of North Carolina officials left an annual dam safety conference in Seattle to begin monitoring the roughly 5,700 dams across the state. They reached out to dam owners, asking that they check the integrity of their structures and lower water levels if need be. Now a group of state dam safety officials are huddled in the emergency operation center in Raleigh. They’re in…

SOUTHPORT, N.C. (KTVU) – When a hurricane begins pummeling your restaurant, there’s not much you can do other than close up shop, hunker down and pull out your iPhone 10 to document the storm. And that’s exactly what Craig Sblanks, 44, general manager of the Frying Pan restaurant and American Fish Company in Southport, N.C., did. “I did it during Matthew two years ago,” Sblanks said by phone Friday, referring to the Category 5 hurricane…

From Sandy to Maria, Irma and Harvey, David Tepper has had his share of experience with responding to devastating hurricanes. If history is any indication, the Carolinas can expect a similarly significant response from the new owner of the Carolina Panthers as Hurricane Florence ravages the coast and brings torrential rain and wind farther inland. In a statement Thursday evening, the Panthers and Tepper said they are engaging with local and state officials, as well…

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) – Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Friday his company will make a large donation to assist with Hurricane Florence relief efforts. Cook wrote in a tweet that “Apple is donating $1M to the Red Cross” to help those impacted by the powerful storm that rolled ashore in North Carolina early Friday with roaring 90 mph winds. He also asked all Apple employees in the Carolinas, and everyone in the hurricane’s path, to…

RALEIGH, NC (FOX 46 WJZY) – Dangerous conditions from Hurricane Florence have already claimed three lives, including a mother and her newborn child.  According to authorities, one person was killed in Lenoir County while plugging in a generator. The two other people, a mother and her baby, were killed in New Hanover County when a tree fell on a home. Hurricane Florence made landfall at Wrightsville Beach about 7:15 a.m. Friday as a Category 1 hurricane…