WRAL Newscasts
4:30AM News on WRAL - Thursday, July 4, 2024
Now breaking news from W-R-E-L coverage you can count on. One man is dead after a crash in Smithfield right off of Cleveland road coming up. I'm going to show you the damage to that car. And we continue to track some big time heat setting up across the country. This is all headed our way. We're going to go over our holiday forecast and talk about any storm chances coming up. And there are 4th of July celebrations happening all over the triangle today including at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. We'll tell you about that event and much more on this 4th of July and we'll take you out there live as well. I hope you have a smashing day on the way here. I'm Jeff Hogan. And I'm Renee Chiu. Yeah, you want to see a great fireworks show that's at the DBAP. They know how to do fireworks. Meteorologist Anthony Baglion in for Elizabeth on this holiday and it is feeling humid out there. We're starting to see a difference for us compared to yesterday. The humidity levels have gone up. But happy 4th of July to all of you. Hopefully you've started your day off here on a relaxing note. We see those two points currently at 68. That puts us squarely in the humid category and that's going to stick with us as we head through today. It overall should be a decent day. It's going to be hot though for us and we have a small chance of a few storms here this afternoon which we'll talk about here in a second. We are currently at 76 degrees almost 80 around the triangle upper 60s and low 70s for everyone else. Climbing though to 97 this afternoon, that will be a difference also compared to yesterday where we topped out in the low 90s. So that's going to be some more hot air headed this way. Here's future cast. So we go through the next couple of hours. We're looking good. We get into late this afternoon. Still looking pretty good. There's lunchtime early this evening. We may start to see at least a pop-up shower or thunderstorm. It's not going to be a lot of coverage and I think most of that model right there is a little bit overdone but still from about the triangle to the north. We'll watch that chance. We're going to go over this though more in detail and show you our weekend forecast guys coming up here in just a few minutes. Thanks Anthony. We have a terrible crash to tell you about breaking news this morning. A man is dead after a rollover crash near Johnston County. This happened on Cleveland Road about 115 this morning. It's just outside of Smithfield. Nick Pirlin joins us live from the scene in the WRL breaking news tracker and Nick there was also a woman in the car at the time of this crash. Yeah, Jeff, I actually just learned new information from the state trooper seconds ago. You're actually told that this crash involved a stolen car and I want to get you to this video from the WRL breaking news tracker. So you can see this car and you can see it badly damaged and flipped over on its side in a field. We're told this happened at around 115. We know two people were inside that car. One man and one woman like Jeff said, the man died. We're still trying to get more of an update on the woman's condition but a state trooper, like I said, just now told me that that car was stolen. We're looking more into charges and we're going to try to find out more about what state troopers plan to do next with this. Once we have more information, we'll be sure to update you live in Smithfield, Nick Pirlin, WRL news. And we're working to learn more about a crash that left this vehicle overturned. The WRL breaking news tracker got this video last night around 11 p.m. The vehicle crashed along I-40 near US-1. You can see the windshield in front of the vehicle destroyed. We'll update you when we learn what led to the crash and condition of the driver involved. If you're looking for some Fourth of July fun, Durham Bulls have you covered after their game tonight against the Norfolk Tides, there will be a fireworks show. WRL's Kelsey Comfy joins us from Durham Bulls Athletic Park to tell us about this event this morning. Kelsey, good morning to you. Hey, Jeff, good morning. So the stadium is getting ready now. You may be able to hear some leap blowers here behind me as the staff is preparing the ballpark. And of course, it's empty here now, but in just a few hours, hundreds of fans will pack out the ballpark to enjoy some baseball and an epic fireworks show. So right now you're looking at video of the show last year buying a ticket to tonight's game. We'll guarantee your seat for the fireworks show. Gates will open for general admission at the end of the seventh inning to watch the show but space is limited inside the ballpark and tickets are still available online. The game will start at 635 and the fireworks show is scheduled for 915. Kelsey Comfy, WRL news live in Durham. Cornwallis Road in Durham is back open this morning after two cars crashed into a tree near Bainbridge Drive. Video from the WRL breaking news tracker shows emergency responders on the scene. Police tell us the tree fell onto the road and knocked down a power line before 10 last night. Two cars and ran into the fallen tree. No one was hurt. Hurricane barrel is making its way toward the Cayman Islands this morning. Overnight it weakened slightly to a category three storm. The storm has killed seven people so far and caused widespread damage in the Caribbean. Jamaica is still under a state of emergency this morning and no deaths have been reported there. It caused widespread damage on Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The hurricane left massive destruction behind there, severely damaging 90% of the houses on the island. The hurricane advisory notice has been issued in Texas as well with barrels path uncertain. State authorities have warned people in coastal areas to be prepared over the holiday weekend in case tropical weather reaches the Gulf Coast. Coming up on today live reports from Jamaica as the hurricane moves away from the island and the tenetio starts at seven o'clock here on WRL. If you're driving to a 4th of July cookout or pool party today, here are the best and worst times to be on the road. Triple A says the best time to travel today is before noon. You may want to avoid being on the road between 2 and 7 p.m. Those will be the busiest hours. Then tomorrow you'll have the best luck driving before 10 a.m. 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. will be the most congested time that day heading into the weekend. Here's a look at the prices you'll see when you go fill up your tank. Triple A says the state average is 331 a gallon, up slightly from a week ago in Raleigh at 336 and that's below the national average, which is 351. Taking a national look, North Carolina ranks 14th for lowest gas prices right now. If you're heading south on your road trip, there are lower prices in South Carolina. The average price there is eight cents cheaper than North Carolina. We're expecting to get an update this morning about a cybersecurity incident affecting the town of Apex. The town is experiencing a network outage and that means people can't make payments or submit permit applications electronically. It's still unclear if personal data from residents and employees has been compromised. Emergency services are fully operational. A retired FBI agent with a background in cybersecurity shared why hackers see local governments as a prime target. You look at the top five areas that bad guys are looking to attack its municipalities for several reasons. They have limited resources like the cybersecurity workforce is very limited as it is. Those of us that are in the cybersecurity world are having a hard time finding people to do the cybersecurity job. And that expert says it is likely personal information was stolen from the town's database. Back in 2020, WRL reported on cyber attacks in Rocky Mount and Durham. Cyber specialists are calling for more safeguards among local governments as threats evolve over time. Some Democratic governors say they stand with President Biden after a conversation with him. Governor Roy Cooper was part of the meeting yesterday and he released a statement saying in part Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and everyone in the room agreed that defeating him is imperative. This comes as questions mount over whether Biden's campaign should continue after his performance at last week's debate. We asked all seven congressional Democrats from North Carolina if they believe the president is fit to run for reelection. And if he should stay in the race, three said yes to both questions. Congress women Deborah Ross and Valerie Fusci and congressmen Wylie nickel stay in the race. I do because I think he needs to his policies are good. He's fit for office right now. Michael says the debate has led voters to question how Biden's age will affect his performance as president. Congressman Davis says the president quote needs to step up. A spokesperson for representative Alma Adams says she did not have enough information to comment. Jeff Jackson and Kathy Manning did not respond to our questions. If you're looking for something to do tonight, you can catch the 4th of July fireworks show at Dick's Park. The fun starts at six tonight. You can expect music games and plenty of food. The fireworks started 9 30 and a reminder, there's no parking at Dick's Park. The town of Gardener celebrated the 4th of July early last night. There was an impressive fireworks show. Take a look. Ooh and ah, a big crowd gathered at Lake Benson for the annual January 3rd Independence Day celebration. There were games, music, a lot of food. Other fireworks shows have happened last night in Morrisville, Apex and Wake Forest. Thousands are evacuated from their homes as a fire continues to rage in California. The new concern this morning is dry and windy temperatures are expected this weekend. Plus dozens of passengers left scrambling after their flight was diverted because they were served spoiled food. Well, so this is a live look at Sandford. Good morning to you. We have a hot Independence Day on tap meteorologist Anthony Paklion has our holiday forecast next. Good posture is essential to good health. Unfortunately, at least half of computer users have posture related back pain. Other daily activities and hobbies can also contribute to weakened posture causing spinal misalignment and discomfort in our bodies. Luckily, chiropractic is here to help. Chiropractors provide a drug-free form of healthcare that improves mobility and overall health while keeping your posture in tip-top shape. Find yours today at nciro.org/poster from the WRAL Severe Weather Center, North Carolina's most experienced team of meteorologists. Welcome back time now. It's 443 here on this July 4th where we continue to track some hot temperatures that are headed this way. You can see a lot of heat advisories outlined there in the orange color contour. All of the other ones you see back toward a Memphis are excessive heat warnings. What that's saying is basically this entire chunk of the country could see fields like values up to about 110 degrees today. We do not technically have any alerts, advisories, things like that for the heat today. I suspect that that will change as we get into the weekend with those fields like values getting back up into the 110 range or so. 76 currently is where we sit though an actual air temperature there around the triangle 75 to the southern pines is going to be a hot day and more muggy compared to the past couple high temperatures right about 97 here as we head into our afternoon and evening. Anthony, thanks. During this week's busy holiday rush, some people are hitting unusual travel snags. One Delta flight traveling from Detroit to Amsterdam was diverted to New York City's JFK Airport yesterday because of spoiled food served on the flight. Authorities report two dozen illnesses, but everyone declined medical attention. Officials say passengers were rebooked to other flights last night to their destination. I was actually a little nervous that that I had eaten the ticket. We bought tickets to see Taylor Swift tomorrow and, you know, if we miss that, I'm going to swim across the ocean Delta apologize to passengers and says it will investigate. The people who planned the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia have been ordered by a federal appeals court to pay money to the victims. The white supremacists and nationalist groups will have to pay more than two million dollars toward the people who suffered physical or emotional injuries during the rally. One person was killed and nearly 20 others were injured after a man drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters. He is currently serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes. White Britain is poised to enter a new political era. The polls are open right now for a crucial general election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to be ousted. If that happens, it would bring a 14-year reign of conservative rule in the country to an end. Current polls show the opposition labor party is expected to win. That would bring in a center-left government headed by former lawyer Keir Starmer, whoever wins will become prime minister and then form a government. The tragic update to a home explosion that happened Tuesday in Wisconsin, a 68-year-old man who was rescued from the home, has died. First responders say the victim was found in his basement, calling for help. He was airlifted to the hospital where he later died. The incident has left family members and neighbors reeling in the aftermath. People living as far as 12 miles away say they felt the explosion. The cause is still under investigation. President Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in military aid for Ukraine. Austin made the announcement during a meeting with Ukraine's Defense Minister. He says the package will provide new air defense interceptors, anti-tank weapons, and other critical munitions. The U.S. has been announcing regular defense packages for Ukraine since Congress passed legislation that approved nearly $61 billion for Ukraine aid earlier this year. Dry air and gusty winds are creating the perfect storm for fire conditions in California. A 70 miles north of Sacramento officials say the Thompson fire has burned more than 3,000 acres since it started Tuesday. It's destroyed several structures and forced about 13,000 people to evacuate their homes. This is just one of several wildfires burning throughout the West with a massive heat wave now in effect. Officials fear the warm weather could drive vegetation and spark more flames. Nine North Carolina stores face thousands of dollars in fines for putting the wrong price on their items. Few of the stores are in our area. The Dollar General on Lobelia Road in Moore County faces a $900 fine. The state says it overcharged 14 items back in February. It has since passed an inspection in May. In Wake County, the target on Market Market Center Drive in Morrisville faces a $1,300 fine. It had 17 overcharges in February and March. It also passed inspection in May. People in Durham now have a new way to help reduce food waste in the community. Two food scraps drop off bins have been set up. One is at City Hall. The other is at the Waste Disposal and Recycling Center on East Club Boulevard. You can download the Compost tier app to unlock the bins and dump any food scraps. The scraps will then be converted to Compost. Harry, by the way, also has a program like this. It has added several drop off locations because of popular demand. Carbotown leaders are reminding people to be aware of their surroundings after a rise in bear sightings. The Police Department did not say where or when the bears were spotted. State's Division of Wildlife reminds people not to feed bears and to lock up and secure any potential food sources. You also don't want to leave your pets outside overnight or unsupervised. More tips are available online. There will be a different type of celebration this Independence Day in Nightdale with no fireworks. The decision comes after a scary prank during last year's fireworks show. Authorities told WRL someone lit a fountain firework in the middle of the crowd, and many people thought that sound was gunfire, which caused mass panic and led to people taking off and running. No one was injured. Instead, there will be a family-friendly celebration earlier in the day. At Nightdale Station Park, there will be a bike parade, live music, food trucks, inflatables and more. That all starts at 9 this morning, and they'll have a splash pad open to help you cool off. The celebration goes until 1 p.m. If you're staying in tonight, you can catch a fireworks show right here on WRL. The Macy's 4th of July fireworks spectacular is tonight. You can watch it live on WRL from 8 to 10 p.m. One of the places you can head out to, the D-Bap, because you can hear the crack of the bat, and then crack all those fireworks, the Anthony Bagley on, and the W-R on the Severe Weather Center with that. Look at the D-Bap right now. That's looking nice out there this morning, but it's a warm start for us across the board, and one thing you'll notice as you head out this morning, humidity levels have also gone up. What that's going to do is make our temperatures feel a little bit more uncomfortable here the next couple of days. Good morning to all of you that hopefully have had a great start here to your July 4th. Whatever you're doing across the area, we are starting off calm, a beautiful look right there, the D-Bap camera. If you're headed out today, let's talk about futurecast first, because this is of course a very important one. We're tracking at least the potential as we get later on today into this evening for a few passing showers from the triangle to the north. This does not look like a big system. It doesn't look like it's going to come with a lot of rainfall that we really could use, but we'll take you through the time stamp into this afternoon. There's about 5, 6 o'clock or so. This time we get to 7, I'm going to pause this right there. Our southern county is looking great, but we do have this batch of rain. If it's able to get through some dry air that's above us just at the surface, we may see some of that fall there around Durham, around the triangle that should pass on through, and then by the time we get later on this evening, like 11 o'clock midnight or so, it'll start to push on now. It shouldn't come with any severe weather potential. It just may be, again, a quick passing shower, so I want to make you aware of that tonight. Otherwise, we go for high temperatures today, 97 compared to our low-to-mid 90s yesterday, so that will feel a lot hotter, and once we're in this today, we continue that feeling like 104 this afternoon. We feel like 111 tomorrow. That would put us in heat advisory criteria and then potentially also on our Saturday. We're going to see what the National Weather Service does. They look at all of those ingredients and do a great job of putting out that forecast for the heat. Rain chances, though, this is a great map to see. Check out how many we have in the forecast. Saturday night, we go into Sunday, Monday. I know it's coming in for the weekend after a holiday, of course, but we really need some rainfall, and it definitely will at least have a chance. We'll have a chance as we go through the next couple of days. Let's talk about Hurricane Beryl, because there's a lot of moisture associated with this one. It is now a Category 3 hurricane. It's right about there, the center of this storm system. It's moving to the west-northwest at 21 miles an hour, so it's actually moving along in a rather quick clip. It's likely to continue to weaken. There's the Texas-Mexico coastline right there. It takes it in as a tropical storm at this point, with no effect to us here in North Carolina. We will continue to watch that, though, closely. 97 today, 100 degrees there, guys, on Friday, and then next week, more rain chances and a milder pattern. So that's something we really could use. Looking forward to that. Thank you. Well, today we'll find out who will take the title of this year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Challenge. We'll tell you where current rating champ Joey Chestnut will be competing today. After being barred from the competition on Coney Island. Also, Mark Cavendish writes a new chapter of Tour de France history. [MUSIC]