Raleigh North Carolina News

By Cullen Browder, WRAL anchor/reporter Goldsboro, N.C. — People who live along the Neuse River have seen floodwaters roll downstream and inundate their towns far too often. “You don’t think about this would happen again,” Goldsboro resident Jonathan Gardner said after Hurricane Florence swamped the area two months ago. “Do something about the river. Fix the bottle necks,” Kinston restaurant owner Joe Hargitt said. “It will happen again.” WRAL Investigates found a long history of…

California wildfires at both ends of the state are causing major destruction and taking lives. As counties across California continue to be devastated by wildfires, the Camp Fire has become the most destructive in the state’s history based on the number of structures destroyed. The Woolsey Fire in Malibu and surrounding areas has scorched 143 square miles and destroyed thousands of structures, including celebrity homes. See below for complete coverage, updates and maps of Bay…

Many Red Cross volunteers from North Carolina have spent weeks supporting those affected by hurricanes Florence and Michael. Now, some of them are shifting their focus to help families devastated by California wildfires. Fire destroyed large parts of California again Monday. Six Red Cross volunteers from North Carolina are on the ground helping, including Helen Miller from Jacksonville, who arrived Sunday night. “The people are very appreciative and it doesn’t matter if they are rich…

If a wildfire has been 100 percent contained, does that mean it’s out? What about controlled? And what do those containment percentages in daily fire updates mean, anyway? The terms, used in California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection incident reports on wildfires — including the devastating Camp and Woolsey fires — are actually technical firefighting terms with very specific meanings, reports the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Here’s a basic glossary: Containment, normally expressed as…

The death toll in Northern California’s Camp Fire has reached historic levels. With 29 people killed, the massive blaze is one of the two deadliest of any single fire in state history, though a series of wildfires in Northern California wine country last fall killed 44 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes. The Camp Fire is currently 25% contained. More than 200 people remain missing, especially in and around the hard-hit town of Paradise…

When evacuation centers aiding California residents fleeing the rapacious Camp Fire put out a call for donations, people responded. And responded, and responded, and responded. Now center coordinators are asking donors to stop sending supplies, reported The Redding Record-Searchlight. “We have buildings full of stuff,” said Kathy Ingvoldsen at the Butte County Fairgrounds, according to the publication. “In four hours, we filled up a 5,000-square-foot building full of clothes. They’re stacked up on tables five…

The president tweeted new support, saying that firefighters, FEMA and first responders are ”amazing and very brave” two days after threatening to withhold federal payments due to “gross mismanagement of the forests.” On Monday the president praised first responders for their bravery. The California Fire Fighters, FEMA and First Responders are amazing and very brave. Thank you and God Bless you all! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018 The president’s first comments about…

A little more than seven months after playing his last game for the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena, goaltender Cam Ward returns Monday with something else in mind: beating the Hurricanes. He’ll step off the team bus with the Chicago Blackhawks, dress in the cramped visitors locker room and is expected to be the starting goalie. The Blackhawks, having lost seven straight games, having fired Joel Quenneville as coach, badly need a spark and might…

It’s been a cold weekend across the Carolinas and many people along the East Coast may already be planning their Thanksgiving menus for next week, but that doesn’t mean Hurricane season is over. The 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season doesn’t end until Nov. 30, and there’s one more system out there that National Hurricane Center forecasters say could turn into a tropical depression or tropical storm in the coming days. Hurricane Center forecasters Monday morning called…

Relief and heartache await those starting to return home to a Southern California wildlife zone. Eager to know the status of his house, 69-year-old Roger Kelly defied evacuation orders Sunday and hiked back into Seminole Springs, his lakeside mobile home community in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu. His got the thrill of finding his house intact. But some a half-block away were laid to waste, as were dozens more, and virtually everything on…

Wildfires affecting the Pepperdine campus have forced the university to relocate or reschedule several sporting events that were to be played as home games. The Malibu campus will be closed through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The women’s basketball game against UC Irvine on Friday will be rescheduled. The men’s water polo team was to host the Golden Coast Conference championships Friday through Sunday. The conference will announce updated plans. The women’s volleyball team was set…

The Latest on the California wildfires (all times local): 5:30 p.m. Southern California Edison has reported to state utilities regulators that there was an outage on one of its electrical circuits near where a large and destructive wildfire began as strong winds swept the region. SoCal Edison says the report to the Public Utilities Commission was submitted out of an abundance of caution although there’s been no indication from fire officials that its equipment may…

Hundreds of people gathered Sunday around tables that stretched along two blocks of downtown Raleigh to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Florence. But the meal that fed 1,000 people wasn’t just about about helping in the aftermath of a deadly storm. The meal also came less than a week after a divisive midterm election, deadly California wildfires and reports of mass shootings in Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks. This supper is a response…

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Over 1,000 people packed into downtown Raleigh Sunday afternoon to partake in The Sunday Supper, a massive meal that is raising money for Hurricane Florence relief efforts in North Carolina. Smoke from grills filled the air on Fayetteville street as music rang out over a crowd. Joyce Khan is one of the organizers for The Sunday Supper. “It’s a perfect Southern Sunday Supper on Fayetteville Street today,” Khan said. The event…

The devastating Carr Fire in July may have been sparked by a flat tire, but that’s not how the wildfire got its name. And the Camp Fire now blazing through Butte County didn’t start in a campfire pit. So just how do wildfires get their names — sometimes prosaic, sometimes downright weird? Fires normally are named by the dispatch center that sends the initial responders to the blaze, though in some cases they’re named by the…