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…

An outbreak of tornadoes across Virginia on Monday damaged buildings, uprooted trees and killed at least one person, WTVR reported. At least six of the destructive twisters touched down in the state, the Washington Post reported, likely caused by the remnants of Hurricane Florence as it passed through the area early in the week. The chaotic weather toppled a tree near the University of Richmond’s campus on Monday, posing a hazard. But when a university…

Florence could be the most destructive storm in recent history to hit North Carolina’s roads and bridges, according to the state’s transportation chief. So far, at least 300 N.C. road and bridge sites need long-term repair, state Transportation Secretary James Trogdon told the Observer Friday. And officials may find much more damage when the flood waters recede. “That number could easily double in the next week,” Trogdon said. “It’s a large number with the potential…

When Hugh Weathers, South Carolina’s agriculture commissioner, landed in the Pee Dee in a National Guard helicopter on Tuesday, what he saw was shocking. Fields loaded with mature peanuts were inundated with water, ruining the crop. Soybean fields were wrecked. And acres of once-plump cotton bolls had been shredded by hurricane force winds. “The lint was literally hanging by a threat or was blown to the ground,” he said. “And that (cotton) field was typical….