WRAL Newscasts
6AM News on WRAL - Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Breaking news, the designer can give you the kitchen of your dreams. I'm Dana Merrill, the owner of the designer in North Raleigh. And I am true Merrill. I am the project manager. The designer is a lovely kitchen bath and closet remodeling company. We do pretty much any of the utility spaces in your house. If you want to store things in your cabinets, if you want to work on things on your countertops, if you want to have a floor that can get wet or muddy, we're the place to help you fix your home up. We are the designer in North Raleigh, located at 3030 Wake Forest Road in the Holley Park Plaza. We would love to see you or visit our website at thedesignery.com. Now breaking news from WRAL, coverage you can count on. Was it a comet, an unknown spacecraft in the sky? Nah, just a SpaceX launch. Coming up, we're going to show you more photos from people who saw it across North Carolina. Rocky Mountain Police are investigating a shooting behind me at this apartment complex off of Boyd Court. Coming up, I'm going to walk you through this crime scene. As we head out this morning, the heat is very manageable, not a ton for us currently, but all of these alerts depicting a bigger or different picture headed this way. We're going to talk about how our July 4th holiday looks with the heat coming up. And a swimmer vanished after going into Jordan Lake. The search for him continues and it comes after two drownings in that same area in recent weeks. If you notice a little more traffic on the roads today, that's because holiday travel is in full swing just ahead. Why more people are expected to head to that 4th of July destination by heading on the roads instead of the skies. Good morning, everyone. It is six o'clock. Tell you what, it pays to get up early here, where within the last hour we saw that SpaceX Starlink satellite launch into the skies over downtown Raleigh. Great to have you with us. I'm Renee Chiu. And I'm Jeff Hogan. There's all kinds of value in the early birds joining us every day, right? And Elizabeth Gardner has the day off. So Anthony Baglione in the WR Severe Weather Center, this is we're going to squeeze one more comfortable day out of this, aren't we? Yeah, today's going to be decent for us. And then we start to really heat things back up as we get into July 4th. The weekend is just going to be kind of a trend that we reversed to with all of that heat out there. It was cool watching that SpaceX launch because of course with all the firework celebrations here just across home, it was almost like we got our own personal firework of this guy out there. We head outside this morning though, there's our beautiful shot in Raleigh at flags, our very, very still out there, a really nice sunrise and we're going to be treated to actually a pretty decent day today. And if you're planning here to hit the roads, head out and travel, you should be okay across our part of the state and our region really. Upper 60s close to 70 is where we sit 63. They're a little bit cooler in Roxbury, but still starting off with very manageable humidity levels. We're looking at temperatures 82 there in the mountains today, 92 in Raleigh, 80 at the beaches. It really starts to crank back up though here into our July 4th. We will go over that forecast Brett here in a few. Thanks Anthony. Let's take a look at traffic. I'm Brett Neeson for Ken Smith here. 602 on your Wednesday morning and do have a couple of things to tell you about. There is some sort of road hazard on the on-ramp from 540 onto 87, coming in to Raleigh from the eastern part of Wake County. Then we do have a new crash that did just pop up off of Hammond Road near Trion Road. Not seeing any delays on the sensor, so that's good news so far this morning. No delays out there either. This is I 440, a capital boulevard, zoomed in look up on capital boulevard, but right now it's looking good right now if you have to hit the road, whether you're traveling or whether you have to work today here before the July 4th holiday. We're breaking news. We're following as police in Rocky Mountain on the scene of a shooting at an apartment complex. Nick Pirlan got there in the W.R.L. breaking news tracker just in the last 15, 20 minutes. Nick, what have you been able to learn so far from there? Well Jeff, I got here at the Rolling Meadows apartment complex not too long ago and Rocky Mountain Police are focusing in on some of these cars behind me. I'm going to get behind the camera just to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. And when I arrived here, I saw crime scene tape covering these cars next to this Rocky Mountain Police car. We do know that they confirmed with me that there was a shooting here as soon as I arrived. It looks like you can see some investigators over there taking some pictures of those cars. We're still trying to learn more about what exactly happened here. Still no word on any injuries, but I'm going to keep asking investigators for more information. And as more information comes available, I'll be sure to update you. Live in Rocky Mountain, Nick Pirlan, W.R.L. News. Good morning. I'm Chris Love and good in the W.R.L. Life Center. So many of you called into the W.R.L. studios today about this right here thinking, oh, is this a comment? What is this? This is actually a SpaceX launch that happened this morning. And the video you're seeing here is from a W.R.L. photographer. But since you have been calling, we've decided you sent us photos. Why not show them to you, right? So this is the first photo I'm going to show you. This is from Gerald White. And this is a pretty good photo. You can see clearly the rocket going to the sky there, even some other objects in the sky. And then this next photo is from Janet. She was at the executive airport in Franklin County. This is from Stevie, headed toward Zebulun, Anita at Garland, North Carolina, another good picture here. And Kathy Gardner sent this photo from Fayetteville. So if you've got photos and you haven't had a chance to see yours on this morning's show, you could, of course, go to W.R.L., W.R.L. dot com and click the reported button to submit photos like this one. Police in Durham are investigating a crash that left a car on its roof in the woods. This happened on Denfield Street just before 1 30 this morning. This is video from the W.R.L. breaking news tracker. We are working to learn what led up to this crash. And if anyone was hurt. For the third time in recent weeks, a swimmer vanishes while in Jordan Lake. Search crews were looking in the water in the area of Martha's Chapel Road and Farrington Road into the early morning hours. W.R.L.s Kelsey Coffee is live at Jordan Lake this morning. Kelsey, we know crews left there around 1 20 this morning and the search lasted for several hours. Renea did and we're working to find out if crews were able to find that swimmer or if they're going to come back again this morning and continue their search. They were here until almost 1 30 this morning. We'll give you a look now in video from the W.R.L. breaking news tracker of that search. It lasted nearly five hours. Crews were dispatched around 8 45 last night. The search was focused at Martha's Chapel Road and Farrington Road. Take a listen to radio traffic when crews were dispatched. And it may all possibly 52 years of age probably will flag down the first responders if I was a lot of cars apart on the side of the roadway. Same as possibly been in the water for over 20 minutes. And we reported about two other drownings here at Jordan Lake since late May. So this is just a reminder this morning to be safe out on the water as we're headed into the 4th of July and we'll be sure to keep you updated on this search. Kelsey Coffee W.R.L. News live at Jordan Lake. Millions of people are getting ready to hit the road for their Independence Day trips. Triple A says this will be one of the busiest days of the holiday week and W.R.L. is right off the Beltline here in Raleigh this morning with a record number of North Carolinians expected to be driving to their destinations for the 4th. Laura. Jeff, good morning right now. We are standing right off of 440. And yes, we're going to see a lot of people here hit the roads today. Listen to this more than 2.2 million North Carolinians will travel 50 miles or more away from home. That's according to AAA and of that number 1.9 million will do so by vehicle. So we're talking about nearly 2 million drivers here on the road. Drivers can expect to see that heavy traffic and congestion later throughout the day. Triple A predicts we'll have 100,000 more drivers than we saw last year during this holiday period. It's best to avoid rush hour times by leaving early in the morning or later if in the evening if you can. The holiday travel period was extended this year with more people working remote. Triple A tells us more people started leaving for their destinations earlier this week with plans to extend that vacation throughout the weekend. They're doing these really big bucket list trips that they were saving from 2020. They're just now getting it all together. They're just now getting the whole family and friends together and they're taking these really big trips. So, travel's bounced back in a big way and I think that's what we're going to see. If Memorial Day was an indicator, Fourth of July is going to be really, really busy. And the Fourth of July road trips are a bit cheaper this year compared to last year. According to gas, buddy, the national average price for gas is $3.49 for the Fourth of July. That's what they're predicting. That's cheaper or the cheapest we've seen for this holiday since 2021. Laura Levine, WRL news live in Raleigh. So those gas prices might be something to celebrate. Laura touched on the national average price. Here's a look at the average prices for North Carolina right now according to AAA. The state average is $3.30 just two cents more than a week ago. In Raleigh, it's $3.36. That's the same as yesterday and again the national average at $3.50 today. For the lowest gas prices in the country, North Carolina ranks 14th. If you're heading south on your road trip, you can find lower prices in South Carolina. The average price there is eight cents cheaper than here at $3.22. What about flying airports will also be crowded today. AAA expects the number of people flying for the holiday will set a new record, nearly 7% more than last year. If you're heading out to RDU, airport officials say get there at least two hours before your flight takes off and reserve a parking spot a day ahead. People in Jamaica are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Barrel. The storm remains a very powerful category for Hurricane. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting life-threatening storm surge as it nears Jamaica. Now, the National Hurricane Center says barrel was the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic in July before it weakened slightly to a category four. It was already the strongest storm ever in June. At least seven people are dead and the devastation barrel has caused across the Caribbean. Jamaica's prime minister is urging people to seek higher, safer ground and to not wait. President Joe Biden is addressing his debate struggles for the first time. He spoke at a campaign fundraiser last night in Northern Virginia. Reporters say Biden apologized to his supporters for his performance. The White House continues to defend the president as physically and mentally fit. Biden is scheduled to do an on-camera interview Friday end of the press conference next week. You can celebrate Independence Day early tonight in Garner from 5 until 10 head out to Lake Benson Park to see some fireworks. There will also be food vendors as well as a kid zone with inflatables. Ten after six right now on your July 3rd an 84 year old pilot is hurt after a plane crash in North Carolina. What authorities say happened in the moments before that crash? New developments in the search for a woman who disappeared in the Bahamas while on a yoga retreat. What investigators say they found and what they're still looking for. And as we head out there this morning things are nice and calm for us as we get ready to head into the July 4th festivities. It is a little bit muggy but not too bad. That's going to change up here as we head through the next little while. We're going to talk about a big time warm up on the way coming up. As you get into your cartoon to WRAL news plus on your radio in Raleigh on 99.3 FM. In Durham 96.5 FM at everywhere on 101.5 HD 3. Each year millions of North Carolinians visit a doctor of chiropractic for a variety of different reasons and because of the opioid epidemic that number is expected to grow. Chiropractic is a drug-free natural form of health care that helps people with all sorts of different painful conditions such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, sciatica and various different musculoskeletal conditions. But did you know that your doctor of chiropractic can actually help you improve your overall level of health? Visit nciro.org/info for more. Are you ready to buy or sell your home? The Jim Allen group is a nationally recognized and award-winning real estate team in the triangle dedicated to providing exceptional service to meet your needs. With the latest insights and expert market knowledge they'll make your home buying and selling journey as smooth as possible don't wait head over to Jim Allen.com and start your next move today that's Jim Allen.com the Jim Allen group your partner in real estate. It's a nice decent summer start for us this morning and if you're headed out here the next couple of hours temperatures are mainly going to be in the upper 60s and low 70s let's say you need to get the pets walked if you can do that early this morning or even into this evening outside of the heating of the day because we're going to be still at 92 this afternoon that's going to be really starting to warm those pavement temperatures up to of course don't ever leave those pets kids in the cars things like that this time of the year we really want to emphasize that 92 here around the triangle 80 degrees at the beaches rip currents are still in the moderate category so we could see some issues with that so be careful and then we look ahead to tomorrow very minimal chances here but we do have some strong storm chances mainly north of the triangle they're up toward our far northern counties we'll be watching that but it looks like a pretty low chance all right let's take a look at traffic now it's 614 here on your Wednesday morning we do just have that one crash that's on him and road the rest of the triangle looking pretty good so far this morning we're not seeing any delays over in Durham on the Durham freeway 540 looking good the belt line looking good and if you're coming in on i87 from Wendell we're looking good that is that crash right there Hammond near Trion Road just north of Trion no delays in the sensors which is good news this is i87 at Hodge Road and you can see that 87 looking good in both directions so over we're day two now we're nay we have another small plane crash here in North Carolina Brett this was in the western part of our state the pilot was an 84 year old man and he's in the hospital after crashing a small plane in North Carolina this was at the what Lexington airport around eight last night troopers say the plane crashed while trying to take off the plane never really got off the ground and flipped over at the end of the runway the pilot was pinned inside and may have suffered a head injury the FAA will investigate new developments in the disappearance of a Chicago woman who was at a yoga retreat in the Bahamas 41 year old Taylor Casey was last seen at a paradise island yoga retreat June 19th officials at that retreat reported her missing the next day police found her phone in the ocean nearby her journal and other personal items were found but police say they have not found her passport the news comes as a shock to her family and friends back in Chicago i want all of Chicago all the world to know that she is very loved and it's a wonderful person that her disappearance is very unlike her she's she's not one to just you know to disappear Bahamian authorities say they have said divers drones tracking dogs all in their ongoing search the U.S. State Department is also involved Alaska's Denali National Park remains closed today as a wildfire burns near its entrance additional crews arrived yesterday to help fight the fire evacuation orders were issued for the park earlier this week Denali officials say there has not been an active wildfire in that area for the last 100 years ahead this morning on today a first look at new research out of California that may determine what sounds attract sharks most of the time we literally see sharks when right underneath people they don't change their speed they don't change their direction they just completely ignore them because we're not their natural prey absolutely yeah we're not food for them exactly if that were the case then Southern California would be Costco for white sharks. NBC's Ann Thompson was able to go out with shark scientists as they test the animals hearings and it's all coming up this morning on today which starts right here at seven o'clock on WRAL drought conditions in eastern North Carolina are cause for concern excessive heat and weeks without decent rain have devastated crops Congressman Don Davis is asking for an emergency drought declaration much of eastern North Carolina has moved from abnormally dry to a moderate drought farmers say crops like corn and tobacco are seeing severe damage with 75 to 100 percent of corn crops lost to these relentless conditions it's an unfortunate thing you plan all year to grow a crop and and you see it in the field doing well and and then something that we have no control over and uh that can come along and and take that from you. David says there's a need for federal resources as the farmers combat inflation as well well we certainly do need the rain but we're going to stay dry today and the skies are clear for a really cool phenomenon that we saw happen around the five o'clock hour Anthony yeah we've been getting lots of questions about this this was right about 4 55 or so this morning we were able to catch this on one of our cameras that we have access to here across the area what this was is not a comet not a shooting star anything like that it was the SpaceX rocket that launched in Cape Canaveral Florida it moved in such a way along the coast that we could see that and you can see that rocket here this is a picture from a Belinda Beasley first of all thank you for sending that in our pine level area right about there is the rocket is that traveled along it may just kind of for an eerie or really cool site out there this morning there's another shot that we got sent in from Ike Ren and Henderson a beautiful right there this morning if you have pictures I'm going to show you where to send this here in just a second but we love seeing them out there it moved along our coast after that launch in Florida with the sun coming up in the east it was visible here in Raleigh and I'm sure across a large part of our state wrl.com/weatherwashers that's where we'd love to send if you can send those pictures to that link it helps us to kind of tell that weather story and then we can get those on air and show them here to everyone else let's talk about where we sit right now though because no more rocket launches we are calm out there currently we have a lot of sunshine working its way through we have a few clouds we have some dry weather for us today although we could use some rainfall coming through them I just don't see us getting a lot here's a look at future cast though so we start you off this morning that's right about now we see the light shower activity down to our south not much as we go through today but what happens is because there is a heating difference between the land and the water the land heats up a lot faster we get kind of a boundary that sets up and so there could be some storms that try and come along shore that's mainly going to be into South Carolina we're quiet the next few days you look up toward the Ohio Valley that's where it could be a little bit more active Chicago and Indianapolis Columbus they may have some weather to deal with here as we head into July 4th we're looking just fine though the next couple days fireworks should be good to go there's a slim chance tomorrow afternoon for a shower or maybe a stronger thunderstorm here for our far northern counties this is not likely to be a big storm system or anything that I would cancel plans for but I just want to make you aware that here if you're headed out tomorrow in the tropics of course we have hurricane barrel this is the latest advisory this does take it across the Yucatan Peninsula as a category to hurricane working its way close to the Mexico Texas kind of border there as we get into next week that would be as a tropical storm we're looking at temperatures though check those out 98 tomorrow 100 on Friday we continue that hot trend there into next week with a couple more rain chances there Brett thanks Anthony not looking forward to the 100 degree heat out there but we're gonna make do with it here's traffic now Wednesday 6 20 right now on your morning and we do have just that one crash out there a lot of green on our boards no delays on the sensors which is really good news if you're coming in from Wake Forest on US one southbound not seeing any delays right now try on road just north of try on road on Hammond roads and earlier crash damage only crash should be in the clearing stages at this point want to go over to Durham real quick and show you that the Durham freeway and when we get that map over there is a delay free at this point which is really good news and then we have our live look at us one at walnut street which is also looking pretty good Renee and Jeff only on WRA all the men whose son was killed in a stabbing shares his grief this is the last place that my son would live his life 32 man his push for justice as police are still working to make an arrest and Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese are going to be teammates for the first time the opponent they're preparing for later this month coming up in what's trending and here are you winning NC education laundry numbers on your screen right now each year millions of North Carolinians visited doctor of chiropractic for a variety of different reasons and because of the opioid epidemic that number is expected to grow chiropractic is a drug free natural form of health care that helps people with all sorts of different painful conditions such as headaches neck pain back pain sciatica and various different musculoskeletal conditions but did you know that your doctor of chiropractic can actually help you improve your overall level of health visit nciro.org/info for more breaking news the designer and give you the kitchen of your dreams i'm dana meryl the owner of the designer in north Raleigh and i am true meryl i am the project manager the designer is a lovely kitchen bath and closet remodeling company we do pretty much any of the utility spaces in your house if you want to store things in your cabinets if you want to work on things on your countertops if you want to have a floor that can get wet or muddy we're the place to help you fix your home up we are the designer in north Raleigh located at 30 30 wake forest road in the holly park plaza we would love to see you or visit our website at the designer.com this what's trending report sponsored by rug and home are coming up today in what's trending right now us a women's basketball in wnba you're gonna have a little uh mix going together here as they warm up for the olympics yeah they'll play a wnba all-star team led by katlin clark and angel race so the ricky sensations who are college rivals will be playing together for the first time they'll face team USA on july 20th just days before the start of the olympics that's pretty cool what they're doing actually all the wnba all stars are going to be split up for their all-star game with the olympians against the all-stars so it's gonna be pretty cool there they're all wnba all-stars but and then clark and race rivals become friends we'll see but she's act professionally jeremy irons is the lady star to join apple tv's the morning show who played jennifer aniston's character's father in the upcoming season four and i just say so many people have asked if i've watched the morning show and my answer is luck and i already do a version of the morning show and um you know i just want to watch something else but um huge fan base for that yeah well thank you don't do that version yeah a lot less drama here on our morning show for sure uh hundred percent tonight there'll be fireworks lighting up the sky above wake forest the party gets started inside husky stadium at heritage high school at five thirty let me music food and dessert trucks and much more fun all night long until the fireworks start that's at nine thirty tomorrow there'll be the children's parade at ten thirty on north main street and the art and more in the park festival that's at holding park from eleven to one if you notice more traffic congestion on the roads today that's because holiday travel is in full swing just ahead with triple a is saying about the record breaking travel numbers and the best time to head out and as we check out where we said this morning things are calm but we look at those big-time heat alerts across the country heat advisories excessive heat warnings a lot of that's going to work its way in our direction but this morning though look at this beautiful shot that we're left with out there we will leave you with this this morning and talk about our forecast for july 4th coming up and we know this has been turbulent hurricane barrel headed towards jamaica as a powerful category four storm the effort people are taking to try to stay safe as the storm has already left seven people dead elsewhere in the Caribbean here's Brandon with parkway sleep centers tired of waiting for a sleep treatment at other sleep centers it can take six to eight months just to get an appointment and cost you thousands more not parkway sleep health centers we schedule you within weeks and we'll save you money too we have over 20 years of experience serving the triangle let our expert team help you sleep better sooner end your sleep problems live your best life experience the parkway sleep difference visit parkway sleep calm and start your journey to better sleep today parkway sleep health centers sound sleep sound health at your job do you ever have to deal with a nose roller about a snub bully well if you're installing a new conveyor belt system dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language luckily you've got a team ready to help grangers technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance repair and operations so whenever you want to talk shop just reach out call click granger.com or just stop by granger for the ones who get it done it's time for today's lucky land horoscope with victoria cash life's gotten mundane so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with the trip to lucky land you know what they say your chance to win starts with a spin so go to luckylandslots.com to play over a hundred social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes get lucky today at luckylandslots.com no purchase necessary vgw group void we're prohibited by law 18 plus terms of condition supply