Florence deals ag industry $1.1B hit

Hurricane Florence has left another memorable mark on our region with damage sustained from significant rain and wind over a three-day escapade. Many residents and businesses, including our agricultural industry, are now in the midst of making some tough decisions on how to best move forward to getting things back to normal.

Rebuilding conundrum: For some Florence flooding victims, answer is unclear

Dee and Rory Barror stood Thursday night outside of the RV they're living in with their daughter and two dogs, their faces lit up by headlights of cars turning into the grassy field that's their front yard and a distribution point for Hampstead's devastated Cross Creek community.

Both parties should prioritize savings

As the North Carolina General Assembly gathered for its October 2 special session on Hurricane Florence relief, the state's rainy-day fund stood at $2.01 billion. There was another $737 million in reserves earmarked for other purposes along with an unreserved credit balance in the General Fund of $1.2 billion.

Committee gives Kavanaugh accuser more time

4, 2018, file photo Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is surrounded by photographers as he stands with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, during his confirmatio... . U.S. Sen. Susan Collins , speaks to the media on Friday, Sept.

After Florence: Your house has flooded. Here’s what you should do.

A home sits in high water on W 6th St after Hurricane Florence brought heavy rains to Washington, N.C. on Friday afternoon on September 14, 2018. When floodwaters from now-Tropical Storm Florence finally subside and residents are allowed to return to their communities in North and South Carolina, the shift to recovery mode may seem overwhelming.

BRWC gets $156,648 grant for generators

BRWC Operations Manager Stephen Taylor and B-MPFD Chief Chris Jones show off a "check" that will be used to cover part of the cost of four diesel-powered standby generators to be placed at BRWC well sites. With them are BRWC board members Ralph Vincent and Tracy Coates; Kershaw County Director of Safety and Emergency Services Gene Faulkenberry; BRWC board members Kershaw Graham, Chover Baskins and Lynwood Horton; and BRWC staffers Heather Hall and Jania Anderson.

HUD chief Carson surveys storm damage in Fayetteville 16 months after Matthew

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson and Republican 9th District Congressman Robert Pittenger visited homes hit hard by the hurricane and reassured Mayor Mitch Colvin and other city leaders that those impacted by the storm have not been forgotten. More than half of the buildings at the 100-unit Mt Sinai Homes complex off Murchison Road, near Fayetteville State University, were damaged by the storm, and repairs are still being made to apartments in the federally subsidized complex.

House Speaker Extols GOP Record in Raleigh

As Republican legislative leaders gear up to retain control of the N.C. General Assembly in next year's election, they likely will tout efforts to cut taxes, reduce regulations and curb spending over the last five years. House Speaker Tim Moore gave a de facto preview of what the GOP's strategy could be during an address to the Moore County Republican Men's Club at its monthly luncheon last week at CCNC.

Trump administration to send Haiti earthquake victims home in 2019

Julio Calderon, 28, upper right, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, speaks in favor of renewing Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Central America and Haiti now living in the United States, during a news conference Monday, Nov. 6, 2017, in Miami. The Trump administration announced Monday it will end immigration protections for about 59,000 Haitians living in the United States in May 2019, concluding that conditions on the ground in the poverty-stricken Caribbean country have improved enough since a massive earthquake in 2010 for residents to return.

Storm debris removal largely complete in Flagler

The last of the debris piles in Palm Coast and unincorporated Flagler County will be removed from residential streets in coming days. County officials announced Tuesday that crews have completed debris cleanup from Hurricane Irma and had collected nearly 37,400 cubic yards of vegetative debris along with 888 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris.

Hurricane Irma through our eyes: Steve Bisson

Daniel Brown, left, chairman of the trustees at St. Paul CME Church watches as a couple generators are loaded into a truck Friday morning by Desi Byrd, center, and Edgardo Olivieri at Home Depot. He hopes the generators will prevent the problems at the church when power was lost during Hurricane Matthew.

County prepped for Irma

Even as the latest models show Hurricane Irma tracking West, the Upstate is taking no chances with the storm and preparations for a worst case scenario are well underway. At Blue Ridge Electric, Manager of Government and Community Relations Zach Hinton spoke about the potential for power outages and downed lines within their service area.

An Unprecedented Number of Drones Will Deploy Over Houston to Survey What Humans Cana t See

Right now, the Federal Aviation Administration has imposed a ban on drones flying over Houston, which is still weathering what some climatologists are calling the worst storm in U.S. history. But once the rains and the winds die down, that ban will be lifted, and hundreds of flying robots will ascend above the city and region to assess Hurricane Harvey's damage.

County, city officials return from hurricane institute with new ideas to tackle next disaster

Dozens of Horry County and city officials are back or on their way back to the county from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute in Maryland. While there, they received an intense crash course on how to deal with several emergency scenarios, and improve response and preparedness in Horry County.

El Dorado Hills man honored for volunteer service

El Dorado Hills volunteer Bill Tobin has been recognized for the sixth straight year by former President Barack Obama and humanitarian organization ShelterBox USA with the President's Volunteer Service Award for his efforts in 2016 to assist disaster survivors. When disasters like Hurricane Matthew and the Syrian refugee crisis strike, many want to help.