WRAL Newscasts
4:30AM News on WRAL - Monday, July 8, 2024
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Hurricane barrel is expected to make landfall any minute as a category one storm. - And today, tens of thousands of students will head back to class to start the new school year. We'll tell you about new policies that are in place to keep your child safe at school. 37 year-round Wake County Schools beginning today, summer flying by. Good morning everyone, it's 4.30, great to have you with us, I'm Renee Chiu. - And I'm Jeff Hogan. A lot of kids are happy they're on the other calendar, not the year-round calendar, but hey, they start today. A lot of folks got rain over the weekend, Elizabeth Gardner and the WR as severe weather center right now with a look at that radar. - It was definitely good to see and much needed, but boy, it was hot as well. So a little bit of moderation with our heat, but it's still gonna feel like summer the next few days. And we continue with our chance for showers, a little bit of light patchy rain, well to our west closer to Charlotte. We're not likely to see anything this morning during the morning commute, but it is more likely that this afternoon we'll start to see some showers. It may be that we would see an isolated shower before lunchtime, but it's mainly going to be after lunchtime up until around five o'clock or so that we'll see another round of some showers and thunderstorms. It'll be isolated, not everybody will see it, just your typical afternoon and evening thunderstorms. We take a look at our temperatures, 76 degrees right now, the due point is 73, so it's very warm and very sticky as you head out the door this morning. Temperatures are anywhere from the low to mid 70s currently, and it is gonna be another hot afternoon for us. We'll see a high of 92, but feeling more like upper 90s to around 100. Of course, we're following barrel very closely. It looks like it could make landfall shortly. It's just a few miles off the coast of Texas, and we'll take a closer look coming up. We'll take a closer look right now. Barrel gains strike once again. Now a category one hurricane ahead of its arrival on the Texas coast this morning. The storm could bring life-threatening storm surge in strong winds. The National Weather Services, the hurricane, is likely to make landfall near Matagorda Bay, an area halfway between Corpus Christi and Galveston. The outer bands have already started to bring rain to that area. More than 120 counties in Texas are under a disaster declaration this morning. People spent the weekend boarding up businesses and filling sandbags ahead of Barrel's arrival. - So we want to take a quick look at what it appears to be looking like right now in Texas for day. Good morning, I'm Chris Loving, good in the WRL Live Center. This is a live camera from South Padre Island. This is the southernmost part of Texas off its coast. And you'll see right there the white caps that are kind of coming in. And if you look at the dark spaces where the sky is, there's some lightning that I've seen occasionally pop up here and there. And then there's another camera that I have here. This is in Galveston, Texas, a reporter's camera right now. They don't appear to be in front of it. But you'll just see how heavily that rain is coming down at this hour. Of course, we'll keep doing check-ins with this because as we heard Elizabeth say, we're expected to see Barrel make landfall in Texas and not too far from now. But we'll keep watching carefully to see what it looks like and see if this intensifies. - Thanks, Chris. Today, thousands of year-round students in Wake County will head back to class to start the 2024-25 school year. This year, parents will have a new way to get updates on their kids' bus routes. WRIO's Laura Levine joins us live from Woods Creek Elementary School in Holly Springs. Laura, the district is rolling out a new bus delay notification system. - It is. Good morning, Jeff. And we are here live at Woods Creek Elementary School. This is a brand new school opening for the first time here in Holly Springs to students. It's among the 37 year-round schools that will open to more than 42,000 students today. Now, as you mentioned, something new that is beginning today, starting this school year, parents of students who ride the bus now can get up to the minute notifications via text and email when their child's bus is delayed. Parents can also check for bus delays by clicking on the live bus updates link on a school's transportation page or by using the here comes the bus app. This comes as the district has dealt with major transportation and bus staffing issues over the past few years. Something else that's new this year, people can begin using the say-something anonymous reporting system that you see here. This is something new for Wake County Public Schools beginning this year, other districts across North Carolina already using this system. This will supplement the school district's existing anonymous tip line. So of course, we'll have live coverage all morning. I'll be speaking with the principal of the founding, the founding principal of the new school here as well as superintendent, Robert Taylor, Laura Levine, WRO News live in Holly Springs. Wake County is bringing the say-something system into the district. It's an anonymous reporting system that school districts across the state have already been using. You can report different threats or things like bullying. The district had been using an anonymous phone tip line, which it will continue to do. - Today, environmental agencies are monitoring air pollution in the aftermath of a huge fertilizer plant in South Hill, Virginia. We know the woman who crashed her car sparking the fire Saturday has died. Police say she drove into a propane tank at the warehouse, knocking it about 10 to 20 feet, causing it to ignite and shoot flames into the building. At least 15 firefighters were taken to the hospital, and at last check, one was still in the hospital. The EPA says air quality is good enough to avoid taking action. The DEQ did find dead fish in nearby creek, so it is testing the water samples. - First lady, Joe Biden will be in North Carolina today as calls for President Biden to end his re-election campaign grow. As she is expected to speak at a political event in Wilmington, Joe Biden is also making stops in Florida and Georgia today. While President Joe Biden reached out to Pennsylvania voters Sunday, some of the House's top Democrats met to discuss his campaign. House Democrat Leader Hakim Jeffries held the private meeting. Sources say there was a divide among them, and some of them privately saying Biden should step aside. Others, including members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, argued Biden should remain the party's choice. Biden told reporters yesterday that he is up for the job. - A man accused of murdering a couple in Franklinton earlier this year will be in court today. Police say William Hume and Matthew Johnson were shot and killed by their roommate, Christian Webster, at their home in April. William's father, Tom Hume, says Webster moved in with the couple in September last year. Police say Webster shot the two men, and then called 911. Authorities found Hume's body in the bathtub, Johnson in the basement. The DA tells us evidence will be presented today, and they will consider whether to seek a death sentence or life in prison against Webster. - This morning, filming for a popular TV series will start on UNC Chapel Hill's campus. It could affect people traveling in that area today, and part of the third season of Amazon's series, The Samurai Turned Pretty is there filming on campus. W.R.S. Kelsey Coffey joins us live from Chapel Hill, and Kelsey, several roads will be closed over the next few days around that area. - Jeff, they will be, and most of the filming for the show, The Samurai Turned Pretty, is going to be happening here at McCorkle Place at UNC, so you can already see that some of the roads here are closed right now, but some of you may watch the show on Amazon Prime, Cruiser filming season three that's set to premiere next summer. The main characters in this series are about to enter college, which explains why they're filming at UNC, and this is something interesting to note. The author of the book the show is based on, Jenny Han is a UNC alum. Now, fans are anxiously awaiting this season. Season two was released back in 2023. Filming was paused due to the actor and writer's strike, and now roads will be closed in Chapel Hill today for filming. These are the roads that will be impacted by closures, starting today at six this morning. Only part of East Cameron Road, or East Cameron Avenue is expected to be closed tomorrow. Traffic will be detoured, and some parking lots on campus will be impacted, and filming is supposed to wrap up by the end of this week. Kelsey Coffee, WRL News, live in Chapel Hill. - Happening today, Durham County leaders want your input about a performance-based award for two new companies coming to the county. One is IANA, an EV charging company. The other is Foundry, a medical service company. Now, the county is considering giving the company's money if they create a set number of jobs and investments. The companies would also be required to provide internships to Durham Tech and North Carolina Central University students. You can weigh in during tonight's commissioners meeting, beginning at 4.30 PM. - Police in Detroit are looking for information on what led to a shooting that killed two people and hurt 18 others at a block party. The shooting started around 2.25 Sunday morning. The victims who died have been described as a 20-year-old woman who died at the scene, a 21-year-old man who died at the hospital. The other victims all range in age from 17 to 28 years old. One is listed in critical condition. People who live in the area heard hundreds of gunshots. - These babies had to run. With really no place to run, you're running in people's backyards, jumping fences and they're telling me about how scared they were. A 22-year-old man is in custody after he was shot in the leg. He is listed in stable condition. - Tonight, a Wake County Road is expected to close as part of the complete 540 project, West Lake Road in Kerry between Jamison Park Drive and Langston Circle is scheduled to be closed tonight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Drivers are encouraged to avoid that area if possible. You can use 10-10 Road, Bell's Lake Road and Optimus Farm Roads as detours the closures dependent on weather. - The lake fire in California continues to grow this morning. We'll tell you which iconic property it's threatening. - And a send-off fit for Olympians. We'll show you how members of Team USA were honored during last night's match between NC Courage and Racing Louisville. - And this is a live look at Zeppulin. We're going to have several chances for rain this week. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner is tracking that for us. (upbeat music) - Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get juicy Washington red cherries for $2.99 a pound, then get 10-10 on items like Lays Stacks, Rice Oroni and Sparkling Ice Sparkling Water for $1 each, all with your card. Shop these deals at your local Kroger today or tap the screen now to download the King Supers app to save big today. King Supers, fresh for everyone, prices and product availability subject to change, restrictions apply, see site for details. (whistling) - Hi Drew and Jonathan Scott here, reminding you that American family insurance agents can help build a customized renters policy. So you can protect stuff like this, or this, or even this, yep, well case in point. Life's better when you're under American family's roof. Ensure carefully, dream fearlessly. Get a quote and find an agent at ampam.com. Products are not available in every state. American Family Mutual Insurance Company, S.I., and it's operating company 6,000 American Parkway, Madison, Wisconsin. - From the WRAL Severe Weather Center, North Carolina's most experienced team of meaty relatives. - 443 is a warm and sticky start this morning, 76 in Durham and Raleigh and in Fayetteville. So our temperatures are warm and you'll feel that humidity when you step out the door, of course. This afternoon, a few isolated showers and thunderstorms, not looking at a lot of rain for today, but we'll see those chances increase as we get into the latter part of the week. We should have some nice, heavy downpours to continue to help our drought situation. So looking at partly cloudy skies for us this morning, 79 degrees, it's warm and sticky as you're walking out the door, for sure. And then our adult walking forecast for it today by lunchtime, looking at 87 and a high of 92 late this afternoon, that chance of some scattered showers and thunderstorms. Coming up, we're gonna take a close look at barrel as it is almost ready to make landfall. - More than 120 line workers and support staff have traveled from Ohio to Texas ahead of Hurricane Barrel's arrival. They'll be there to help in case the storm leaves widespread power outages in its wake. The workers began their journey Saturday to make sure they got there before the storm hits this morning. - The lake fire continues to burn in Santa Barbara County, California. A County Fire Department official posted a stunning video of the fire burning in the Los Pajas National Forest. Here we go, the fire has burned more than 60,000 acres. Several structures are being threatened, including Michael Jackson's former Neverland Ranch. More than 750 firefighters are battling the flames. - Tomorrow the trial against Alec Baldwin begins in New Mexico. This comes nearly three years after the death of cinematographer, Helena Hutchins, on the set of the film Rust. Baldwin is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter in connection to the shooting. If a jury convicts him, he could get 18 months in prison. Baldwin was pointing a revolver at Hutchins during a rehearsal for the movie when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Sousa. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger and the gun fired. The film's armor, Hannah Gutierrez Reid, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April. - We have the funeral arrangements for the two-year-old girl who was shot and killed in Durham last month. Manari Bradger was shot during a drive-by shooting on East Cornwallis Road in Durham on June 20th. She died a week later. Her family is holding a memorial service on Saturday for her. It will be at Blackwell Funeral Home in Burlington. Bradger's mother and a 22-year-old man were injured in the drive-by. No rest have yet been made. Durham police are asking anyone with information to give them or crime stoppers a call. The highest camp on the world's tallest mountain is littered with garbage, and it may take years to clean up. Sherpas on Mount Everest say there could be as much as 40 to 50 tons of trash still at that camp. It's known as the last camp before climbers try to reach the top of the summit. At that point, climbers are worried about staying alive more than cleaning up after themselves. Teams have even found and dug up two frozen climbers who had to be taken back by helicopter. There is more mental health services for students in North Carolina schools. Schools are hiring outside agencies to provide services for kids who can't otherwise leave school to get them. Providers and educators tell WRL's education insider that services are improving kids' moods and helping them focus on school. They say the partnerships are a solution after more than a decade of rising mental health struggles among young people. You can find out more about the services in the education section of WRL.com. - After the NC Courage match against racing Louisville, the team honored players from both sides that are playing in Paris at the Olympics this year. - And represent the United States P.C. Murphy. (crowd cheering) - The courage have five players in the Olympics, Carolyn, for Brazil, Fili Roush, for Germany. Casey Murphy for the U.S. was right there last night. The list also includes Sydney Collins for Canada and Courtney Vine for Australia. Murphy says she'll miss being away from the team but will watch them from afar. - Just to know that I have their support and their love and they're always watching and cheering. Like that means everything to me and I'm gonna miss them but yeah, I'm really excited for this opportunity and it's my first Olympics and I cannot wait to get there. - And coincidentally Murphy started her playing career professionally in France. Team USA Swimming took a break from training at the Triangle Aquatic Center and carried it, check out the game and support their fellow Olympians. Swimmers watched the courage remain unbeaten at Wake Med Soccer Park. WRL is your home for Summer Olympics. Sarah Liz McLaughlin will be in Paris, bringing you live reports. We'll also have live coverage all day from July 26th to August 11th right here on WRL. - It is 4.48, yes yesterday was muggy but it was so nice to see rain around the area. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner and the WRS Severe Weather Center with our chances for the rest of the week. - Yeah, as we desperately needed it and the chances are on the lower side for the next couple of days but it really does ramp up by the time we get to the end of the week and of course we still need lots of rain to catch up and get out of this drought situation. We take a look at Dual Duffer 5000 radar, a little bit of light patchy rain coming out of Charlotte but it is fizzling fast. We're not likely to see any here this morning. There's nothing really out there to impact your morning commute. You can see how that rain begins to fizzle but by the time we get to lunchtime it's possible that we would see an isolated shower or thunderstorm. You can see some of that popping up and moving in early to mid afternoon. Not likely to see a lot of coverage. There'll be plenty of people that don't see any rain for today but every little bit helps and so if you were hoping for some rain hopefully you'll see some and we do continue those chances this week and of course they definitely go up towards the end of the week. We'll talk more about that coming up in a little while. Let's take a look at barrel. There's a center of circulation right now. It looks like it is crossing land. It has to cross halfway over to actually officially make landfall. Boy, it looks like it there on the radar and typically the National Hurricane Center will send out an alert and say yes, it is officially made landfall. So we're watching that. I would expect that possibly any minute now at least in the next hour as it makes landfall. Almost do southwest of Houston. Officially in the four AM advisory, 15 miles off of Mount Agorda, Texas moving northwest at 10 miles per hour. So again, any minute now with winds at 80 miles per hour. Of course, Chris was just showing us some of the video there from the coast of Texas and it is a category one storm but it can still do a lot of damage. That coastline there off the coast of Texas is definitely very low elevation just like ours is. And so it doesn't take much to cause a lot of issues with storm surge with a category one storm. Then that rain moves up the Mississippi Valley and mostly stays to our west but we may have a different low that develops later in the week to help bring us a better chance for rain. Here's a live look at Rocky Mount Mills this morning. All quiet but warm and sticky. 76 degrees are wind southeast at three. We're going to climb into the mid 80s by lunchtime. I love our weather watcher for this morning. Take a look here. Charles Rencish sent us this from Raleigh beautiful rainbow. Absolutely gorgeous. We'd love to see your photos. Go to www.WRL.com search weather watchers and send us what you've got. Around town today, warm and sticky of course, 92 in Raleigh, 91 Durham, 95 in Fayetteville. Our muggy meter is way up there at tropical at 73, making it feel uncomfortable again today and no change this week all the way through Friday. That muggy meter stays very high. This afternoon it'll feel like 102 but potentially 110 Tuesday and 106 on Wednesday. We'll be watching for the weather service to issue a heat advisory. They haven't said that they will but we're still looking at major heat risk for the next three days really. So just be careful out there. Look at our temperatures and we do have some cooler weather on the way for Thursday and Friday but that's when our chance for showers and thunderstorms bumps up. We need that rain. It'll be nice to cool off. We'll talk more about when we'll see it and how much we might get coming up. Looking forward to a rainy day, Elizabeth. Sam's Club Plus members have about six weeks left to use a coveted perk. We'll tell you what's changing and how it's already backfiring. And every 4th of July thousands of people hike out to a remote area of Alaska to watch cars fly off the side of a cliff. Yeah, we're gonna show you the video here of this unusual tradition. - Wow. - Yeah. (upbeat music) - Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get juicy Washington red cherries for $2.99 a pound. Then get 10 for 10 on items like Lays Stacks, Rice Oroni and Sparkling Ice Sparkling Water for $1 each, all with your card. Shop these deals at your local Kroger today or tap the screen now to download the King Supers app to save big today. King Supers, fresh for everyone, prices and product availability subject to change, restrictions apply. See site for details. - It is Ryan here and I have a question for you. What do you do when you win? Like are you a fist pumper? A woo hoo, a hand clap or a high fiver? If you want to hone in on those winning moves, check out Chumba Casino. 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