>> hunker down for not one but two blasts of arctic air on the way. my timeline for how long the cold lingers. >> plus our wallets purses and often go unused. i will show you how to get the most money out of our unwanted gift cards. a raleigh taxi driver shot and killed while doing his work. and police are now searching for

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whether for the holidays or birthdays or a wedding gift, gift cards are a popular gift to give but let's be honest mostly because they are easy. >> many people don't like the gift cards that they get. 5 on your side monica laliberte is here to talk about how to turn the unwanted cards into cash. >> here's the thing. gift cards are very big business, $32 billion a year and half of us received at least one over the holidays. i know i did and you both say you did and maybe another for a birthday, wedding, some other

it's a store that you just don't shop. you do have options. don't let that money go to waste. you can trade gift cards for cash on one of many gift card exchange websites. consumer reports checked out four. >> these websites buy your cards and resell them. that means you get less, sometimes a lot less than they are worth at the store. >> a $100 toys r us gift card gets $80 at gift cards.com and $50 at monster gift card.com. >> we looked at 13 different store gift cards and found out gift cards gave us the most money back but it pays to shop around because it differs from site to site and card to card. >> you'll get more money from gift cards like popular retailers.

all of the sites checked. another option did you know you could get cash right away at coin star. you will take a hit. the $100 walmart card netted over $71. spend. the card with a master card, visa, american express or discover logo can be redeemed at any merchant that seasons those cards. >> and shop at target regularly it could be worth it or here's one. ask friends or relatives if they want to buy your gift cards. mom i took money but here have this gift card instead. >> i would feel bad about selling it back at a low value when somebody really cared about putting the money into that in the first place so i think i would still try to use it. >> that's because you are deborah. that's why. >> i would feel bad.

>> monica would say give me the cash now. [laughter] >> right now. okay how about this next story. a cruise ship will not make it to florida after what passengers are calling a horrendous ordeal. a major store look at this rocking the royal caribbean anthem of the seas for about 12 hours toppling chairs, breaking vases, knocked over furniture, look at this. they would have that bottle of vodka wouldn't they? cabins. no one was hurt but forecasters reported hurricane force winds of 100 miles per hour and waves of up to 30 feet. even so the cruise line decided to turn the ship around because the forecast could continue to effect the comfort of the passengers. it's now headed back to it's home port in new jersey but i had that first even so there they knew it was there and kept going. >> that is a problem. my stomach doing somersaults

storms bringing white out conditions to new england. massachusetts getting the brunt of the storm issuing a blizzard warning for cape cod and the islands. the winter storm could dump as much as 18-inches of snow on cape cod. flooding is an issue on parts of outer banks and ocean over wash forced highway 12 to shut down in the town of buckston. crews were able to reopen a stretch of highway here about noon. >> no ferry service. look at this. >> that storm--and greg you were talking yesterday about if you put it side by side with hurricane isabel it's amazing how similar these storms look. >> yes very similar. different mechanics but some of them are similar. when you are over warm ocean water which is where that storm was yesterday ocean water temperatures in the gulf stream in the 60s and 70s even this time of year so get a nice storm over that kind of water

my wife was on a cruise ship back in i guess it was november and they had 6 to 7-foot seas and it was making people a little nauseous. >> i can't even think about that. >> you just don't stop. >> and so can you imagine 30? >> no i can't. i'd be so uncomfortable. >> unbelievable. we've got a little bit of umbrella weather out there for some folks this evening. let's show you the radar right now and see some yellow showing up and indeed at sanford the official reporting station there they actually have reported moderate rain as that has gone on through iyo haen to get a yellow or orange patch going over head it could come down fairly hard for a time. let's go in closer and you can see over chatham county towards the end of the loop here we start to see the growth of the heavier rain and this is all heading eastward so those of you around andrew will be seeing rain very, very shortly and in raleigh looks like the rain will be developing.

as wide spread but none the less there still are going to be showers in the area for at least the next couple of hours. a little bit of a closer look and chapel hill the rains are lightening up but east of the leading edge is where things are picking up in the next 15 or 20 minutes. let's go ahead and take a look at the visible satellite with the radar superimposed and colder air cold enough for the precipitation to be in the form of snow and it's possible with the big upper trough coming in the next couple of days we could see random sprinkles or even flurries at just about any time from late tonight on through tomorrow and perhaps part of wednesday. none of it would amount to it because temperatures during the day would be above freezing but just to make you aware of the possibility you may see drops over the course of that period of time. let's go ahead and take a look at the sky cam looking east here and see the areas down east where the clouds haven't

coming in from the west of course overcast here and temperatures at 51 after getting to 56 earlier this afternoon. the dew point temperature of 29 giving us a relative humidity of 42% so rain drops have to work hard to sat rate that air before they make it to the ground so it takes a little bit of time to do that. temperatures around the area warmest in the east sunshine longest coolest in the west where the rain has arrived in the 40s around roxboro and 40s in sanford, southern pines and laurenburg. down east it hasn't rained temperatures still in the 50s. here's the water vapor imagery the big storm that cause ad the problems with the cruise ship retating into the atlantic and the trough of round one as we head to the middle of wednesday and thursday and then an even bigger blast coming in this weekend although right now it looks like it is going to be dry as that cold air arrives.

main band of rain showers coming through this evening. it actually shows it being fairly clear in the morning but we don't really think that's going to happen to be honest with you. if it does go clear as soon as the sun goes up and begins to provide any heating at all the atmosphere will go into self destruct mode and clouds develop very quickly so still mostly cloudy skies and again a sprinkle or a flurry tomorrow and again on wednesday but anything more than that highly unlikely and again temperatures getting colder every day. so 8:00 this evening 46 and patches of rain still moving through the area. by 8 i think most of it down east and 32 late tonight. maybe a sprinkle or a flurry. same thing through the day tomorrow. high temperatures in the 40s and the big thing is the wind west sustained at 10 to 20 with higher gusts and wednesday and thursday the highs get colder. 39 and 36 respectively.

41 on friday and the even bigger blast over the weekend and it's possible on sunday we may not get out of the 20s despite sun with overnight lows in the teens. coldest weather of the winter may be in the middle of february. >> when we are looking forward to 41 as a high. >> the standards are changing. >> thank you greg. crews are finding survivors earthquake. coming up the rescue efforts under way at an apartment building in taiwan. and a major road closure will impact drivers for months. ahead at 5:30 why crews are closing the mooresville park

project could > frmaqun s il stmi k toem ed to adopt a new resolution with significant new sanctions. the north korean leader went ahead despite warnings from south korea japan and other u.s. world leaders calling a banned test of missile technology. parts of asia welcomed in the chinese new year in style celebrating the first day of lunar new year with a street parade colorful floats marching

they welcome the year of the monkey the 9th 9th animal on the zeid yack. at least it wasn't a puppy monkey baby. the columbus zoo officially has a new namenorah in a public on line vote. so cute. norah is a combination of her parents named and she was born on november 6. >> what a cutie. >> so adorable. so cute at that age. >> maybe we could bring her in here too. >> another mascot. let's do that i love it. linda loveland has what we are working on in the next half hour. >> next at 5:30 what started as an eyesore on the roadway becomes a much bigger problem. >> this sinkhole is detouring drivers. how long it will be until it's fixed. and for the first time

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