1 to 2 inches of snow in the lower elevations. 2 to 4 inches of snow up in ski country. they're happy about that. latest future cast suggests windchill values as cold as -15 in the high country. and you don't want to be outside in that. and all ready it's causing serious issues up in the high country forcing students in two counties to stay home today, ash, avery, watauga county schools are also closed for tomorrow. eyewitness news reporter dave faherty is live in watauga county. and you can see from his hair, the wind is picking up. >> the wind, we've been getting gusts over 20 miles per hour easily. some gusts 30 miles per hour. tomorrow will be the third day in a row they've missed classes up here in watauga county. if you look behind me, you can see why, this is a secondary road. it's snow covered tonight. there's a layer of ice on it as will. we were in avery county earlier

take a look at this video. you can see where crews were hard at work trying to clear the snow. so far students have missed seven days because of snow. but the superintendent tells me not to be alarmed. they average close to 18 snow days a year here in the mountains. in avery county, they make it up by adding time on to the school day earlier in the year so the students get the hours required by the state. the superintendent recalled one winter when he was young when they actually missed 45 days. >> didn't go a single day in january. so compared to that, missing seven's not too bad. and for the first time in a long, long time, we didn't miss any days before christmas. >> that was because we had that very warm december. there's one of those gusts i was talking about. it's brutal right now. temperatures in the single digits around 9 degrees. we're getting gusts well over 20 miles per hour. blowing the snow across the roadways. it's blowing me around quite a bit.

are these roads up here. i'm going to step out of the way. you can see it there. the strong gusts out of the northwest now bringing in more snow showers to the north carolina mountains. reporting live from watauga county, i'm dave faherty, a very cold dave faherty, back to you. yeah dave's hair becoming us. just hours ago, this man accused in a violent crime spree in charlotte appeared before a judge. he targeted innocent victims with a gun. mark becker has covered his arrests before. you found out those cases could come into play even though they were dismissed. >> reporter: they could we're told because if prosecutors and police can convince a judge that they fit the same pattern as the robberies where he was a suspect four years ago they

when police arrested eric ore after a chase sunday morning it took them back 3.5 years to a string of robberies where the suspect was wearing halloween masks and terrorizing clerks at convenience stores. they say the man behind the mask was eric ore, but witnesses couldn't say for sure he was the man who robbed them and the jury found him not guilty. now ore is charged again with attacking a woman and taking her car at this motel and then robbing clerks at two convenience stores at gunpoint and threatening to kill them. >> the person needs to be prosecutor. >> reporter: phil richie can't understand why ore wasn't convicted the last time. >> if he's done it several times and there's cameras all over the world. somebody should have spotted him. >> if you've got a situation where a person is accused of a crime and nobody saw their face, you don't have dna or fingerprints or anything to

impossible to imagine getting a guilty verdict. >> reporter: those cases could come back to haunt ore in a new trial if prosecutors can show that the new cases are similar. was he using a mask this time? that would be one of those things that would really say this is the common scheme or plan. >> reporter: and i did speak with the victim of one of the robberies over the weekend. he told me ore wasn't wearing a mask but did have something like bandana over part of his face. that maybe enough. reporting life at the mecklenburg county courthouse, channel 9 eyewitness news. it was a bittersweet day inside bank of america stadium as the panthers cleaned out their lockers. it was the final ending to what's been an unforgettable season. players signed one anothers jerseys as they packed up their lockers. head coach ron rivera addressed

looking forward to next season and they have their eye on the super bowl. cam newton also spoke to the media while cleaning out his locker. next at 6:00, his shocking admission when he talked about walking out of the post game press conference and the performance his team put on to show how much they support him. our team of photographers are back on the road heading back to charlotte after covering the super bowl for a week. they left on their 27-mile journey. they hope to travel 700 miles today and end up tonight in flag staff arizona. they're dock you wanting their journey back to charlotte on twitter. follow us on twitter for their updates. stocks continue their downward spiral on wall street today. the drop of oil prices is to blame for the choppy trading. right now a barrel is below $28. the dow dropped 12 points. the nasdaq lost 14.

helping push gas close to the 1 dollar mark in parts of the country. the cheapest gas can be found in oklahoma city where it's selling for $1.11. nationwide gas prices are the cheapest they've been since january 2009. experts say they point to the surplus of oil on the market because of strong u.s. production and the end of iranian sanctions. there are five states where the average price of gas is below $1.50. drivers in missouri, ohio, oklahoma, and kansas are enjoying those prices oklahoma is the lowest at $1.41. a closer look at home, in charlotte we're paying $1.72. which is 4 cents lower than a week ago. the north carolina average is $1.74. in south carolina, drivers are paying about $1.57 a gallon. a monroe police officer arrested for dwi has resigned. darryn nash's fellow officers

behind the wheel of his car last week. he refused a breathalyzer at the courthouse. his next court date is set for may. south carolina highway patrol is asking troopers in north carolina to be on the look out for the driver in a deadly hit and run crash in chester county. we showed you pictures yesterday of the suspect vehicle's broken bumper. you can see it's a very distinct purple color. troopers say the driver of a tractor trailer rear ended an suv on i-77 north near mile marker 59 and it caused the suv to crash. a woman died at the scene. two buses crashed in west charlotte and sent a person to the hospital. this happened outside coolwood middle school around 8:00 this morning. there was no visible damage to the buses. there were 40 students on board at the time. cms leaders say the student was taken to the hospital as a precaution. a mooresville charter

students had to go home sick. >> several of the children had flu-like symptoms. eyewitness news reporter tina terry found out the school took swift action as soon as they noticed a pattern here. tina. >> reporter: yeah, this all started yesterday, alison, when staff members noticed that many kids called in sick and other kids that came to school were sick too. it's a problem parents say has escalated over the past few weeks. >> she had a fever of 101. i kept her home. i gave her medicine. and sleep. and rest. and chicken soup and all of that. and you know i'm going to keep her home tomorrow as a precaution. >> administrators say many other parents kept sick kids at home yesterday but not everyone. >> we did have some students who came in to school with symptoms of the stomach flu. we sent a message to the

>> the school nurse immediately notified the health department and put in place a flu protocol. sanitizing the school intensely two times a day. >> we do everything we do to disinfect the school, cleaning handles, and cleaning handrails and doors, and everything that we can. >> i definitely told her last night please remember to use your antibacterial stuff before lunch and snack. >> school legallers are also telling parents to keep sick aren't sure. >> as much as we can, we want to get in front of this. >> i did reach out to the health department today a spokeswoman told me that this is pretty common during the height of the flu season. that's what we're in now. she says they haven't heard of out breaks at any other schools so far. they're giving leaders here guidance to make sure that this doesn't spread further. tina terry, channel 9 eyewitness news.

sent home to parents at wsoctv.com as well as a link to page. all of it is inside tina's story on the home page. in rowan county, an american legion used by hundreds of veterans in salisbury is asking the city to investigate a hazard on their property. they started noticing large sink holes on their property in november. they say it smells like raw sewage. they believe a city sewer or water line is malfunctioning and causing the sink holes the public services department says it's all ready investigating. a local teen going to prison for setting a fire that brother. why he and his family both say he's innocent. temperatures about 15 yesterday. this is just the first batch of cold air. i'm tracking another. it'll get. -- how much colder it'll get.

>> my 6-4, 22-year-old son. a substance being banned around the world is being sold

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it, but an herb growing in popularity is being advertised on roads across the charlotte area. it's so powerful heroin addicts use it to help with withdraws. one mother and father are sending an urgent warning about it. joe bruno investigated how a substance banned around the world is being sold legally here in charlotte. night now. >> this is more than a teddy bear to lauren. inside are the final items she has to remember her son. >> he wrote in it, mom and dad, i loved you very much. please know that there is nothing you can do. but i have ruined myself with drugs. >> john eden was 22 years old in the military intelligence program at the university of georgia. like many users he took it to treat depression and stress. but his usage spiraled out of control. he shot and killed himself in the middle of the night at a georgia gas station. after his death, his parents

>> it's not safe. and it's highly addictive. it comes from a tree in southeast asia. experts say it can act as a stimulant and depressant. it's banned in its native country of thailand. but not in north carolina or south carolina. across the area, handmade signs advertise for it. a business we discovered being operated out of this watauga home by a realestate agent. she agreed to meet with me and told me there's nothing wrong with what she's selling. >> are you a drug dealer? >> is it a concern? >> i don't think so. >> we found several websites selling it. and also found it being sold in colorful packages in a t-shirt store in south carolina. this one has no warning label. another warns it hasn't been evaluated by the fda. but we found out the fda knows it well and has warned it poses a risk to public health and has the potential for abuse. >> i'm not a doctor.

they have to do their own research. i can't tell them that it will do anything for them. >> that's not what her website says. it lists it as a natural alternative to treat things like diabetes, depression, pain, and addiction, and plumber says many of her customers are heroin addicts using the plant instead. >> it will help you get over the withdrawal. and then they can stop. then they can just be them. >> the fda has said that it's addictive. >> the fda has said there maybe addictive qualities. >> that's enough of a red flag for this man. >> this is being marketed with no scientific evidence that it's a cure addiction. they change one addiction for another. >> a legal addiction that eden says led her son to take his own life. >> my son would probably be alive today if he was a heroin addict. because at least then i could

today is the day he's going to get arrested but my son didn't have that luxury because this is legal. considered a healing herb by some, a dangerous drug by son. joe bruno, channel 9 eyewitness news. chiquita clara plumber says she only sells it if it's all ready in the state and she doesn't import it. she wouldn't say where she gets it. we posted the fda's warning on wsoctv.com. look inside joe's story under the 9 investigates tab. the snow showers are few and far between. we have a couple in northern portion of richmond county north of ellerby. they'll be out of here before you know it. and of course the snow showers continue pretty much off and on across the high country. look at these temperatures. this is the actual thermometer reading. windchill values colder than this. 7 in baner elk. 18 in boone and jefferson. below freezing in morganton,

out to salisbury, mid to upper 30s in the charlotte area. the warm spot on the map if you want to call it that, wayne wadesboro. by 11:00,s to. country. layer up tomorrow morning. cover as much skin as you can if you're going to be outside more than a few minutes. low 20s early on. mid 20s by the end of the morning drive. at least the sun will be shinning. wouldn't this be nice. the arch is 54. -- the average is 54. we'll stay in the 30s to maybe 40 degrees all day long after that bone chilling start and the wind will make it feel here's our future cast tomorrow. time. mid 20s from charlotte to chester and chesterfield.

flirting with 0 in the mountains. even in the charlotte area, by this time tomorrow evening, windchill value is back to the low 20s. the northwest wind is the story adding to the chill. snow showers should finally start to taper off. about this time tomorrow night in the high country. if you're wondering, okay, we have the cold air in place, what about a storm. this is nothing to be found tomorrow through thursday into friday as well. good news if you have plans this valentine's day weekend. cold. about 40 on saturday. on sunday. near record chill as we head toward sunday morning. our five-day forecast, i'm talking about readings again well below what you'd expect in mid fair berry. highs in the 40s at best with a 39 tomorrow and a 35 on sunday. i said there are no storms coming our way. days. when i come back, vicki graf will join me to talk about one potential next week. >> but until then you get to

>> and winter coats of course. a 17-year-old sent to prison for starting a fire that killed his baby brother. why the disturbing facts made no difference to his family. we uncovered a lawsuit

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answer the tonight the fbi is helping investigate after the niece of oak borrow's police chief was found shot to death. >> she's also the wife of a former police chief. loved ones told eyewitness news anchor liz foster they have a lot of question. >> reporter: joe has been around plenty of crime scenes but he never expected to learn his niece amy was the center of

a family member found her dead inside her home from a single gunshot. >> everybody's in shock. you know, it hasn't set in yet. >> stanley county sheriff george called this home a crime scene. but won't say if he thinks amy killed herself or was killed by somebody. >> it's under investigation. this is a tragedy for the community. the family. >> pieces of crime scene tape are still around the home. the state bureau of investigation has sent five agents to work with county investigators. the sheriff says he just sent more evidence to a state crime lab today for processing. nobody has been charged with any crimes in connection to amy's death. and the sheriff wouldn't comment on whether or not they have a suspect. >> we want to make sure everything is done properly. i have too much respeck for her and that family. >> amy's husband is the town's former chief of police.

reverend dwight new amy for 39 years. and says he feels like he lost his daughter. both he and joe, say amy isn't one who would have killed herself. >> there's a lot of questions and no answers. >> visitation is thursday and her funeral is friday. reporting from oak borrow, liz foster, channel 9 eyewitness news. there could be a federal investigation after this cruise ship sailed into a storm. our meteorologists told you about the storm as it developed. this video shows 30-foot waves and 100 miles per hour winds battered the royal caribbean ship. no one was seriously hurt. temperatures in charlotte inching back to the freezing

mountains in the now, from the news team that's covering the carolinas, this is channel 9 eyewitness news at 6:00. we've seen some heavy snow in the mountains. even a brief flurry or two in the charlotte metro. but the major concern will be the dangerous and biting cold. the temperatures will fight hard to reach above the freezing mark during the day. good evening everyone. i'm erica bryant. >> chief meteorologist steve udelson has tracked this arctic cold blast for several days. he's in severe weather center 9 with the latest. >> let's start with the snow. we had some flurries in the charlotte area this afternoon. live early warning doppler 9 takes you across 77, the

heath springs and kerr saw and on toward jefferson. temperatures are plenty cold, 35 uptown. all ready below freezing in statesville and hickory. at freezing in shelby and lincolnton, the mountains, 17. that doesn't count the wind which is blowing as high as 15 to 20 miles per hour. making it feel like it's in the 20s. by the time you get up tomorrow morning, windchill values in the charlotte area, this is what exposed skin feels. mid teens in the charlotte area. 10 to 15 below 0 in the mountains. that's beyond talking about unusual cold. that's dangerous chill in the high country. you need to cover as much exposed skin as possible. we'll talk about windchill values as low as -20. snow has been so heavy at times in the mountains drivers have experienced white out conditions. ash, avery, and watauga counties have canceled school for tomorrow.