WRAL Newscasts
7PM News on WRAL - Friday, July 5, 2024
Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get flavorful 80% lean ground beef for $3.99 a pound. Then buy two get too free on 12 packs of delicious Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or 7-Up 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. [TAKE VO] The Heat Index hitting an all-time record high on this WRAL weather alert day. I'm timing out how long these dangerous temperatures last to win widespread rain moves in. Roadways in Raleigh are almost 150 degrees. How the city is planning to cool them down, coming up. Then what went wrong with the Firework fiasco at Dix Park in Raleigh? And you still have a chance to catch fireworks, where you can celebrate July 4th tonight, and how organizers plan to keep people safe in the intense heat. Right now at 7 today was the hottest day ever in the Triangle. We broke multiple all-time records 106 degrees, around 130 this afternoon at RDU. Just brutal temperatures out there, and it felt like a scorching 118 degrees. That is the highest heat index ever here. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Ashley Rowe. I'm Dan Hagerty. It really didn't feel like anything over 115 when you're outside. Right? We do have the excessive heat warning. It's in a place right now. The WRAL weather alert day continues. Meteorologist Kat Campbell, in the WRAL Severe Weather Center. Kat, this heat fueled some downpours today too, which you would expect to cool things off, but not by much. We dropped into the mid 80s, but it has still felt pretty brutal out there after hitting 106 at the airport sensor. There was the second temperature reading at the airport from a separate thermometer that came out with a high of 105 today. It was brutally hot. 118 was the max heat index. Both of those all-time records at RDU. Fayetteville tied the daily record high of 101, and Rocky Mountain hit 100 today as well. 91 there right now with a heat index of 100. It was like 104 in Fayetteville, heat index still 111 in Clinton, and it's 90 in the triangle with a heat index of 100 at this hour. We have seen some storms that have fired up around the triangle today. Durham saw a good soaking with another shower that's tracking towards South Durham out of Chapel Hill right now. Some showers around I-85 in Granville County, and we've got more rain headed into Franklin County. In our northern counties, we have seen some of those spotty showers, but it's the northern part of the triangle. Durham, as well as North Raleigh up in Wake Forest, where we have a flood advisory in effect until 745. There were some heavy downforce in this area. I'll let you know when we can see more tomorrow coming up. Our cat, thank you. When temperatures are this hot, when they're in the hundreds, the pavement can get really hot. About 40 to 60 degrees hotter than what you feel outside. And that's enough to burn you or your pets. W-R-O climate change reporter, Liz McLaughlin has more on how to stay safe in this heat. I call her Rosie Jean, and she's a foxhound. Laura Thatcher brought her dog to the park for some playtime, but decided to cut it short. We are hot. Thatcher says she's taking some extra precautions this time of year to keep furry friends safe. Especially with dogs, you have to make sure you can't be taking them for walks in the middle of the day. When it's hot, it gets very hot in the pavement, making sure they're hydrated, reading their body language, making sure that they're not overheating. Pavement temperatures in Raleigh today neared 150 degrees. Veterinarian Jennifer Sawyer says that's enough to injure paws. Just walking even on a short walk out on the asphalt can burn those pawpads pretty quickly, so they don't even have to be standing in one place for very long for it to happen. She's also seen visits from dogs with heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Especially the little short-faced dogs, our little beloved Frenchies and bulldogs. Those guys do need to be careful about the hot sun. These really hot days, they don't have as much space in their nasal passages for air to flow, and so they get overheated really easily. Dogs like this little guy gris the pug. Let's say that you should do those walks in the cooler parts of the day. In the morning, in the evening, grass and shade are your friend. And if you are going to be out and about, it's a good idea to bring some water with you. There are booties that can prevent paw burns if hot pavement is unavoidable. That's hard. I mean, it's 100 degrees. What really can you do besides stay at home and they're conditioning? Ways to beat the heat in the dog days of summer. Liz McLaughlin, WRAL News, Raleigh. All good reminders. The City of Raleigh is starting to add some reflective coating to some roadways to help cool them down a bit. The City of Raleigh is sharing more about the fireworks fiasco at Dick's Park. A number of miscues and mistakes left people in the dark about what was going on last night. The City of Raleigh says the rapidly changing weather was the initial cause for the delay. An announcement was made in error from the stage that the fireworks would not happen and for the crowd to leave. The City says it did not make that decision and set off the fireworks once the weather cleared. Then the fireworks vendor had a malfunction and ended the show early. I mean, I was a little more stressful, I guess, because I have a baby and a toddler. But yeah, we just put the wagon cover up and she stayed dry. And then yeah, it was not too bad, but yeah, we saw the short mini show. The City said it did not use a special text alert system because they hoped the paws would have allowed the weather to subside and then resume the event as planned. Right now, thousands are gathered for an independent stay celebration in Holly Springs, which will be then capped off with fireworks and emergency crews are prepared to keep people safe. It is that hot out right now. WROs, Carly Hanges, they're alive. And despite all this heap, Carly, the event is going on. People are still showing up. Yeah, it's starting to fill out, Dan. Holly Springs has taken several safety precautions all around here, including this hydration station. That's where people can get free water whenever they need to. We're taking advantage of it ourselves. They also have several other precautions in place that includes a tense with missed fans and EMS and police are standing by to handle those heat illnesses. We know there was a lot of confusion with Raleigh's fireworks show last night, but Holly Springs tells us they are prepared to handle emergencies, whether or otherwise, they'll be announcing changes with the mic on stage and also updating their event website and Facebook page. If a lot of people head out all at once, they say they've got that covered too. So we have contracted parking officials who are handling in tandem with our Parks and Rec Department and more importantly, our police department who is navigating the flow of traffic through into the event and outside the event through our neighborhoods. We're well prepared and we've been prepared for quite a bit. And all these springs does expect thousands of people to show up. The fireworks show will get started in just about two hours. Corley Haines, WRL News, London, Holly Springs. As we take a live look at the D-Bap where you can catch some fireworks tonight as well. And tomorrow night, not a bad crowd out there at the game despite the heat. The Durham Bulls are taking on the Norfolk tides right now. The fireworks show will start right after the game. Tomorrow's game also features a special military appreciation. You can also see fireworks fly after the Carolina mudcats game at Five Counties Stadium. They're taking on the Down Eastwood Ducks, both tonight and tomorrow night. The mudcats for America fireworks. That show gets started right after the game. Taking a live look at Carolina Beach right now. When it's this hot outside, you just want to be in the water, right? 79 people were rescued from the water along our coast today alone. Rip current risks were high in many communities. Tonight we learned who was the 14 year old boy swept away near North Topsle Beach. His brother tells WRL his name is Maynard Perez. He was last seen in the New River inlet area. Crews started their search again this morning. Maynard Perez and his older brother from Goldsboro were fishing when they were swept away. Junior Perez was able to get pulled into another boat, but his brother went under. At 10 and 11 tonight, WRL's Aaron Thomas sits down with the brother for a one-on-one interview. Crews are also searching for a missing swimmer on Lake Norman, not far from Charlotte. The person disappeared yesterday around five near a sandbar. Officials have not released any information about who the missing swimmer is. It's also unclear what led to them going under. Several agencies are helping in that search. The major league cricket season started today in Morrisville earlier this week. You may remember we went in-depth on cricket and its rise in popularity and what's happening here in the triangle. We heard from several of you about that coverage. And coming up, we're going to take a look at some of those emails on cricket and some of the other news stories that were big this week. So stay with us for that. Plus, taking a live look at Dick's Park tonight with the wildly popular sunflowers are in full bloom. We're going to show you how they're looking this year. Coming up next. You've heard of Pizza Hut's $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. But something's off. I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven, big pastas, cinebon mini rolls. And that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight-count boneless. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's Energy in Progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. It is Friday. It's the end of the week. We wanted to take some time and jump into the in-depth mail bag. We've got some great responses, as we always do, after our story on Cricut. Let's start with a totally random one that I didn't pick intentionally at all. Julianne writes, "My family and I loved you on the Cricut News segment this evening. Stop it." Thank you. Tom sent me a good book rec forwarding a link to. This too was America. Philadelphia is the first to have a book on Cricut. It's the third day of the week. It's the fourth day of the week. It's the third day of the week. The first day of the week. It's the third day of the week. A link to this too was America. Philadelphia's era on Cricut. Tom, I love a good recommendation, so thank you for that. And since you pointed it out, let's quickly mention it. Cricut in the 1800s in Philly was kind of like college basketball now in the triangle. Massive, huge. The Philadelphia Cricut Club was established in 1854. Their Cricut team disbanded in 1924, but it came back in 1998. And to this day, they still hold the Philadelphia International Cricut Festival. Maybe one day they'll be writing about Morseville and everything they're doing for Cricut in the history books. Who knows? We'll wait and see. Let's move on to something several of you emailed me about. Last week's presidential debate. Iowa writes, "How quickly Americans have forgotten special counsel Robert Herr's description of Biden?" Saying, "President Biden is a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory." Isn't that what we saw and heard at the debate? So, Ira, thank you. We appreciate you writing this in. This is an interesting point, of course. This is Robert Herr on your screen. He's the guy who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents, and it is true. He described Biden's memory as hazy, fuzzy, faulty, poor, and having significant limitations. There are tapes of his interviews with Biden that brought him to those conclusions, but the DOJ will release them. And earlier this week, after the debate disaster, Republicans decided to sue to get a hold of them. In the debate, and whatever is on those tapes, Republicans are salivating. This was the most consequential historic debate in history, because we've never had a debate where immediately after it's over, this is like a rocky knockout. I mean, they should build a statue to Donald Trump at Georgia Tech. Democrats, on the other hand, are kind of all over the board, in some cases, but the narrative that's becoming most prevalent seems to be the it's not about style, it's about substance. The president has always had our backs. We're going to have his back as well, because the results that we've been able to see under this administration have been undeniable in all of our individual states. These are the talking points that we've heard from both sides over the last week, but it's not everyone. Some people aren't really dancing around the real issue here with that media speak. This week, Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas was the first sitting Democrat to say that Biden should withdraw from the race. North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis agrees, which isn't a huge surprise. But in his op-ed for CNN, he didn't really slam dunk on Biden like a lot of his Republican colleagues. He sounded a little bit, well, we could just say empathetic. Tillis wrote, "Biden's disastrous performance doesn't just raise questions about whether he has fit to lead our nation for the next four years. It raises questions about whether he has fit to lead us for another seven months. I truly feel bad for Biden. I believe Biden is a decent man who cares about the country. However, time catches up with everyone. It's clear Biden's decline is more dire than people realized." Our viewer, again, who wrote in IRRA, kind of said pretty much the same thing, I think. The question, though, that we have to ask is, does it matter? Does any of this matter? The debate, the aftermath, the think pieces. Will they actually move the needle in the 2024 presidential election? CNN reported that 51 million people watched that debate, and to be clear, that's a lot of people. Those are NFC Championship numbers. But considering that it was the smallest presidential debate audience in 20 years, that matters, 538 compiled a bunch of post-debate polling data, and it shows support for Biden went down, but just a little bit. While Trump, support for Trump, went up by half. They also found that on average, national polls have Trump up by 2%, which is well within the margin of air. The race was tight before the debate, and it's still really tight now. So maybe this whole conversation is just noise. And both candidates and both political parties seem to believe that they can benefit from that noise. And the media, too. Think about it. This week, The New York Times reported, Biden told his allies that he was weighing whether or not to stay in the race, and everybody went all breaking news on us. But why? Was that supposed to be surprising? Could you imagine if Biden wasn't at least thinking about stepping aside? Now that would be a story, headline, "Biden, unaware that debate went bad, Dems panicking out in the open, media pundits and Biden allies calling for him to step down, Gavin Newsom's hair declines comment." What do you think? What is your comment? Let me know. Email me at Dan@wrale.com. I love doing these segments. I love hearing from all of you at home and getting your opinions and your thoughts. So please let me know what is on your mind, and we will go in depth. You've heard of Pizza Hut $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more, but something's off. Pizza's, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven baked pastas, cinabon mini rolls, and that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are eight-count homeless. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand. So everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. Save big this summer with great deals. All in the King Supers app. Get flavorful 80% lean ground beef for $3.99 a pound. Then buy two get too free on 12 packs of delicious Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or 7-Up all with your card. Drop 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. You've heard of Pizza Hut's $7 deal lovers menu, right? All these delicious items for only $7 each when you buy two or more. With something's off, I mean, pizzas, melts, boneless wings, bacon, cheddar cheese, sticks, oven, baked pastas, cinebon mini rolls, and that's not even the whole menu. I'll keep eating or digging. You should too. Check out the $7 deal lovers menu at your local Pizza Hut. Product availability prices and participation may vary. Additional charges and exclusions may apply. Wings included are 8-count boneless. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] After countless steps and more than a few miles. Our dog drives you forward one last time to make that final climb. And as the rising sun peeks out from the horizon, you know, incredible happens here because it starts here. With a fuel that makes it all possible, Proplan Sport. Discover advanced nutrition made to fuel strength and stamina and active dogs like yours at proplan sport.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]