Raleigh North Carolina News

Waves of soaking rain are in the forecast – first driven by a cold front that will ease our summer-like warmth, following by the impact of two tropical systems. Local leaders are preparing for the impacts from the rain, with Raleigh officials lowering water levels at Lake Johnson to ease the risk of flooding downstream. Other WRAL Top Stories Periods of rain and downpours are expected over the weekend. Then, a tropical system could bring…

Power crews are preparing for potentially severe weather across the state. This comes after nearly 1,500 people were without power in Johnston County on Thursday due to the storm. “We learn from every storm and every storm teaches us ways to improve our process to get better for the next storm,” said Jeff Brooks, a spokesperson for Duke Energy. Other WRAL Top Stories It comes as the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene sweeps through the…

Moore County neighbors are preparing for potentially more flooding just months after Tropical Storm Chantal brought road washouts and dam failures. Bands of rain moved through Pinehurst on Friday, the same area that saw four-eight inches of precipitation in July. Other WRAL Top Stories Basements remain bare and dumpsters continue to line the backyards of homes in the Pine Grove Village community. On July 6, a dam failed off of Knoll Road North, sending water…

Keishia Justice sheltered in a storage space, at the back of her business on Sept. 27, 2024. “When it came, all I heard was the sound, the howl of the tornado, and we ran for cover,” Justice told WRAL News at the time. “When I saw my neighbors, they were screaming for help,” Other WRAL Top Stories An EF3 tornado, spawned from Helene, ravaged a shopping center in Rocky Mount. The storm destroyed more than…

Hillsborough town leaders have reopened Golf Park nearly three months after damage caused by Tropical Storm Chantal.  It took weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the flood-ravaged space. Town officials said watermarks in the park’s restrooms reached 6 feet high. Flooding from the nearby Eno River destroyed fencing, damaged the surface underneath the play structure and carried away a public art installation.  Other WRAL Top Stories “We have missed it,” said park…

The Carolina Hurricanes are exploring whether to sign center Michael McLeod, according to a source familiar with the team. McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were accused of sexual assault. In late July, a judge in London, Ontario, acquitted the players of the charges stemming from an incident there seven years earlier. Other WRAL Top Stories The players are eligible to sign Oct. 15 and play Dec. 1 as part of…

Governor Josh Stein plans to push for more federal funding for Hurricane Helene recovery on Monday. The governor announced on Sunday he has a news conference planned in Western North Carolina asking federal agencies to release already-approved funds for Helene relief. Stein is not the only one who is ramping up pressure on the federal government to increase funding. Earlier in September, Senator Ted Budd blasted FEMA for “stonewalling” funds to North Carolina to recover…

People living in central North Carolina now have expanded tools to help them better understand where flooding might happen in their area. The National Weather Service’s [NWS] experimental service is called Flood Inundation Mapping [FIM], which serves about 60% of the U.S. population. The maps are experimental and may not represent actual flood content, according to the NWS. However, the maps provide water prediction services and real-time actionable information to emergency managers, decision-makers and the…

The Carolina Hurricanes will take to the road in the coming season in a storm of black and red. The team showed off new road uniforms Wednesday on Twittter.  The uniforms feature the trademark hurricane swirl in black, edged in red, on a white sweater. The sleeves are red on the top, with a black stripe at the elbow and white on the forearms. They include red pants, helmets and gloves. The uniform drop came…

Gov. Josh Stein was among the state leaders on Friday who toured the damage in the Outer Banks after Hurricane Erin. Stein spoke Friday afternoon from the Dare County Emergency Operations Center. “We didn’t have the absolute best [outcome] because when we were down in Hatteras, we saw some businesses that took it on the chin [and] some homeowners experienced real damage to their property,” Stein said. “But goodness, North Carolina dodged a bullet with…

Waves pushed onto the North Carolina coast by Hurricane Erin led to flooding on roads and a less visible yet significant impact to local wildlife — the sea turtle nests that dot the shoreline. The nests, carefully tended by conservationists, can be damaged by surging waters which swamp buried eggs. Marie Palmer, is a volunteer with the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center in Surf City and the caretaker of a six-mile stretch of beach…

Hurricane Erin is pulling away from the United States, leaving beach erosion and rough surf along the North Carolina coastline. On Thursday morning, deep cliffs of sand lined much of Wrightsville Beach after the surf came up around high tide Wednesday evening, eating away at the shoreline. Although the erosion at Wrightsville Beach did not reach the dunes, beach crews said the changing shoreline is still monitored before, during and after storms like Erin. Farther…

Waves from Hurricane Erin surged over N.C. Highway 12, Wednesday, pushing seawater and sand across the asphalt and breaching dunes along the fragile barrier islands of the Outer Banks. For longtime residents, scenes like this are no longer rare. And a new collaborative study suggests that these disruptions are only the beginning. “Storms and even high tides, as we’ve been seeing in recent years, cause flooding and overwash of sand onto oceanfront roads,” said Laura Moore, a…

As Hurricane Erin continues to move throughout the Atlantic, officials have been preparing for months before the storm even formed. “Our work on the Special Medical Needs Registry starts in May every year,” said Chuck Lycett, Director of Dare County Social Services. “Individuals can sign up at any time in Dare County.” The Social Medical Needs Registry helps with medical care and/or personal care during an evacuation for a hurricane or for those needing assistance…

The threat of rip currents and beach erosion has prompted the closure of some beach access points in North Topsail Beach as Hurricane Erin draws nearer in the Atlantic Ocean. North Topsail Island leaders are monitoring Erin closely, including Town Manager Alice Derian. “We are always concerned,” Derian said. “Erosion is always at the top of our minds. And, what we need to do to keep an eye and monitor and do anything that we can…