tv Eyewitness News Daybreak 600A ABC February 16, 2016 6:00am-7:00am EST
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is where that line kind of starts. so everywhere north of there through hickory, through statesville, taylorsville, obviously, all still near or below freezing. we're in the upper 30s in charlotte. so no travel issues other than the wet roads here in town. we'll talk about the timeline for the warmup. it does come in taw. it will get there. it's going to take, though, for a couple of hours for those northern counties to thaw back out. let's get back over to mark taylor now, monitoring a multitude of breaking news issues in the traffic up north. >>reporter: yeah. especially up towards glen alpine or gest wind gust of that. highway -- or just west of that. highway 70 closed at bailey street west of morganton. this is an accident that took out some power lines. we are told there are lots of outages. almost half of morganton is without power this morning. highwawa40 is your best bet around this in both directions. we've also been monitoring backups all morning long 85 out of china grove southbound. it wasn't a serious crash, but just south of highway 152, starting to see some delays in both directions. so 29 or even main street will be your best bet to get around
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through the area. beattie's ford at miranda road we've got an accident. the good news is i'm not seeing a big delay here, but it's something we'll continue to monitor for you. and then angela hong, she's just a few minutes away from an accident -- a road closure, i should say because of standing water this. is on hawthorne just north of central avenue. we'll have live reports, more information coming up on this? just a few minutes. john. >> take a look at your screen here. we just got video in from reporter dave ferraday, this is from airport road in morganton. take a look. >> wow! >> a huge tree fell across the road, took down power lines with it there. big problems. the firefighters are working to get it cut up and moved off the road. it's just one of many problems up there. we've been telling you that highway 7 is closed in both directions because of power lines down there too. county officials told us about a half an hour ago that half the town of morganton is without power. >> we just got updated power outage numbers.
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reporting outages. 587 power outages in burke county. we are asking duke when these outages will be resolved. be sure to count on us to bring you any new information as it comes in. we've got breaking news, i- 77 reopened in statesville after hundreds of people were at a standstill for five hours overnight. >> it was so bad drivers took a nap while waiting for crews to get the crash all cleared up. eyewitness news reporter joe bruno is live along i-77 right now where even our crews got stuck in this mess for a while. >>reporter: yeah. and our crew and many other drivers have finally made it home, but it took hours for crews to clear the scene. now, one of the reasons why it took so long for this traffic jam to clear is because troopers and deputies were going door to door to knock on windows to make sure drivers were awake. this massive stretch of traffic was from several crashes near mile marker 50 on i-77.
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interstate around 9:50 last night. that created an eight-mile backup that would take most dryers five hours to -- drivers five hours to go through. that includes eyewitness news reporter elsa gillis and her photographer joey williams who recorded this video while they were waiting. the crash cleared at 2:40, but they didn't make it through until an hour later. one woman we spoke with was just trying to pick up her daughter from her first day of work. >> we've been living up here, it's been, what, six years? it was six years in december. we've never seen this. >>reporter: and according to mecklenberg county ems there were more than 60 crashes throughout the county yesterday. coming up in 30 minutes the other major issues that crews responded tovment reporting live in huntersville, joe bruno, channel 9 eyewitness news. >> thank you, joe. as we mentioned, charlotte mecklenberg schools will be on a normal schedule today. many parents were frustrated the district waited until nearly 6:00 to notify them about yesterday's closure. some students were already at
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>> my older daughter, she had to catch the bus at 6:30 and she was up getting dressed because she didn't know there was no school. >> cms decided to close to keep buses and families off the road during the freezing rain. yesterday afternoon leaders said it takes time to alert 150,000 households and that is not as easy as one process. channel 9 toll you on breaking news alerts and at 5:30 yesterday that cms was closing, 30 minutes before some of you got phone calls from the district. download the free wsoc thp tv news app to get breaking news alerts so you can be the first to know when news happens. tonight people in south charlotte parents have spoken out saying they want to make sure children attend schools in their neighborhoods. the one met coalition supports diversity in schools. it wants to break up the classrooms.
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how student reassignment could be beneficial. >> the experience i had to various cultures, ethnicities, religions, really gave me a lot of perspective in life. >> tonight's forum starts at 6:30 at carmel baptist church on pineville matthews road in matthews. parents have until next week to fill out a district survey about reassignment. today governor pat mccrory will make an economic development announcement in le noir. there's no indication what it exactly will be about. he will make the announcement at the broyhill civic center at 11:30. channel 9 will bring us all the details on our wsoc tv twitter page and watch at 5:00 about the impact on the city. new this morning, the york city council wants to freeze housing development in some of their fastest-growing communities. a proposed ordinance would halt new construction in the lake wiley area and catawba river and the north carolina line.
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on how it would affect roads and public facilities. the council is expected to vote on the ordinance in april. a rowan county woman already charged with child abuse is now facing more charges after police say her toddler overdosed. landis police charged shannon clement with two counts of obstruction of justice. they say she tried to hide evidence and to convince a witness to lie to police. clement was first arrested last week after a friend found her 20-month-old daughter unresponsive. the toddler is expected to recover. no one will be charged after an 11-year-old indian trail girl was shot in wake county. deputies are not releasing many details about what led to the shooting, but they do say it happened sunday while the girl was visiting her grandmother. right now she's in critical condition. pnc bank hopes to boost reward money and will help catch a suspect connected to two robberies in south charlotte. it is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that leez to an arrest. investigators say this man
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at fifth third bank on pineville matthews road in january, then took money from a pnc bank near thear bore eat um on saturday. new for "daybreak," investigators found potentially dangerous levels of lead in drinking water in two york county communities. our news partners the herald got the water test results from carolina water service yesterday. that study showed homes in the river hills and foxwood subdivisions in lake wiley and fort mill had high levels of lead on january 27th. officials think the lead came off of pipes serving a subdivision there. the amount was up to four times above safe federal levels. followup tests since then show the lead levels did fall back below safe limits. company officials urge people to run water for about 30 seconds before drinking it. this morning mecklenberg county leaders will lay out priorities for 2016 and could indicate whether your taxes will go up. county commission chairman trevor fuller will give his state of the county address. republicans will give a
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include ideas for education choices and lowering thtax rate. last year during the state of the county speech, commissioners announced they would not propose a tax increase for the fiscal year we are in now. that's because sales tax revenues were up. leaders also laid out plans to move county services out of uptown and into neighborhoods to make them more accessible. we checked this morning and found crews are still working on construction for phase one of the goal to move medic and environmental services to west charlotte. new this morning, stores that accept food stamps may soon be required to sell more healthy foods. the agricultural department will lay out its new proposal today. they want to make sure people who use food stamps have access to healthy foods. the rules would not dictate what type of food that people would need to buy. it could soon cost you more to rye the bus across mecklenberg county. katz is considering raising fares. the company could get rid of the 10-ride pass discount or it
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both plans include restructuring the weekly pass and increasing pass prices for certain organizations. the agency says it needs to offset a $2.8 million budget shortfall. either option would take affect july 1st. it's about 10 minutes after 6:00. we have weather and traffic every 10 minutes. >> here's meteorologist keith monday on this messy morning. >> yeah. the moisture has moved out, the heaviest rains are long gone for now. there is estill some little leftover areas of drizzle to the north. the issue, though, is the temperature. i've just seen reports after reports all through iredell, catawba, alexander, burke and caldwell counties of scheetz of ice on everything still and places in burk county had about a half inch of ice built up last night. while that's done, the weight of that is now pulling things down. that's why we're seeing more issues with trees and power lines coming down. we'll all gain sunshine today, but at least for the next few hours it will still be icy up to the north. we'll talk about how long it will take to thaw things out and the next rain chance already coming in later on tonight. let's go back to mark. a lot of problems on the roads
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weather up north and the icies travel. >>reporter: on the scene now hawthorne lane which still has barricades up, blocked from central avenue. we've been noticing as folks have been riding around and onto the curb to get around this. it looks like the water has receded for the most part with the barricades up, i would suggest avoiding the area all together. again, this is hawthorne lane just north of central avenue. so you can use the plaza as an alternate route to get around that until they remove the cones, and whether they do, we'll let you know. we are monitoring a big issue. this is up towards glen alpine, just west of it on highway 70. it's blocked in both directions due to an accident, took out some power lines. use i-40 as alternate route. john. the south charlotte church that could be clearing the way to make for a major development. ahead at 6:30, the part of the design leaders want to keep intact if the project is cleared by the city. airlines getting paid to fly short trips between regional airports and your tax dollars are paying most of the bill. ahead on "daybreak," the
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. 6:14. we are following breaking news in the belmont neighborhood where standing water has part of hawthorne lane shut down near central. >> and we've been following this all morning long after we first showed you the picture of the scene about an hour and a half ago. eyewitness news reporter angela hong just got to the scene where that water is starting to resee but still causing issues. >>reporter: john, that's right of the. the water is pretty much virtually gone in this area, but you can see these road blocks are still up, blocking hawthorne lane close to central avenue and a lot of this water that was here earlier, well, it's because of this construction site you can see off to the right. now, we snapped a picture of this area around 3:30 this morning, and you can see that water was actually covering the road. again, that was around 3:30, but they've had this road closed since about 2:30 this morning. just a few minutes ago we took video of people actually going around the barricades because
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is now gone and they are going around the cones. but, you know, it's probably a good idea to just avoid the area all together until police officials, they actually remove the cones. right now the water doesn't seem to be a big problem, but the road blocks are still up. in the meantime we're going to head over to traffic team 9's mark taylor. he's going to let us know about how we can get around this area. >>reporter: for folks heading on hawthorne lane, that's what's blocked by those cones just north of central avenue. so you can use the plaza this morning heading towards the belmont neighborhood out of noda. now we're getting reports of an accident just a little further east on central avenue. we'll look at that, see if it's causing any additional delay along with this issue, that's coming up next. stephanie. by the end of the week, daimler's truck manufacturing unit will lay off more than 1,200 people in our area. >> employees tell channel 9 at least 500 workers will be laid off from a plant in rowan county, huns more in mount holly. they say it's because of a drop in demand. workers will only be paid through april.
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find a new job fast. >> right now probably the biggest thing is trying to figure out what's the next step as far as trying to fine a new job. >> just last month the same company let a total of 900 workers go. the local united way held a workshop and job fair for employees then and the director over again. new this morning, a fort bragg soldier ran into a burning apartment complex in fayetteville to save a family. phone video. look at that fire rising from the back of that building. firefighters say it started on a porch, but then it quickly spread. neighbors went door to door to make sure people got out safely. soldier aaron miranda was able to get inside the apartment where it started. >> when i went up there to see if they're okay, and then there was two kids in there and a lady caught up by herself. >> thankfully no one was hurt. firefighters are still working to determine what caused that
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we have weather and traffic every 10 minutes. >> here's meteorologist keith monday in severe weather center 9. still seeing issues especially on the roads because of the weather we got yesterday. >> yes, the residual effects now from what fell last night and we're seeing more of those problems showing up as the temperatures stay very cold up north. you may find a little mist out there still with the foggy skies in place, but the steadier rain is done. in eastern lincoln county still some very light rain moving its way towards denver, extending up to cheryl's ford. clermont, into parts of iredell county, up to stoney point as well into alexander county. you still find very little bits of freezing rain and freezing drizzle up there. once you get north of charlotte, the rain is wrapping up, but temperatures still knee freezing in most neighborhoods and slick travel. a high risk of that all across corridor. once you travel out of lincolnton up into newton here on highway 321. look at this, newton 32, conover only 30.
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is at or below freezing. rowan county getting better now, china grove is the 34. so we'll see improvements but for most neighborhoods here to the north, it may be until after 7:00 that we will see more of the improvements coming in, maybe 8:00 or 9:00 until widespread improvements come on through. so there's that pocket of cold air still lingering to the north. salisbury still at 32, although you are warming. we're at 37 charlotte. all points south very warm. no travel issues other than the wet roads here into the city. so as our morning rolls on, the clouds will break up, we'll be in the low 40s in charlotte. temperatures warming nicely today, low 50s at noon with a lot of sunshine through midday. clouds start to return late this afternoon, but we still warm up close to 60, thanks to a downsloping west wind. so there goes the rain from overnight. a nice clear picture here except for mountain clouds through the day. those clouds will come right back in this afternoon as the rain chance comes back in tonight. it won't be as heavy, but light showers come in after 7:00 here in charlotte, more light mountain snows, although only the highest ridgetops may get a
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the rain, while we saw about quarter inch early this morning, it's not really going to add up much more tonight and should be gone by the time we head out the door to tomorrow morning. in the next half hour we'll extend that futurecast timeline to show you how quickly we dry into wednesday. but the immediate concerns are up north for the icy travel this morning, and everybody warms up well above freezing this afternoon. we keep lotsz of sunshine in the forecast -- lots of sunshine in the forecast through the end of week and the weekend still looks fantastic, closer to 70 still by sunday. so looking at just a memory in the next couple of days, but, boy, in the short term, the traffic problems, they just keep mounting up out there this morning. let's head back over to mark now. our time is 6:20. >>reporter: yeah. one of the biggest issues that we're monitoring this morning is up towards glen alpine west of morganton where highway 70 is blocked at bailey street because of an accident. took out some power lines. we got a lot of folks without power up towards morganton this morning. so i-40 is going to be your best bet heading east and west this morning to get around that closure. also still monitoring delays on 85 just south of highway 152
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29 will get you around this. and then also we've been talking about the issue in which hawthorne lane is blocked just north of central and we've been talking about using the plaza as an alternate with a minor wreck. not seeing a big delay, but that's central. use caution moving through that accident scene. stephanie. this year many millennials will be vote as baby boomers. ahead at 6:30, the candidates' voters under the age 30 backing early and the trait that makes them difficult to predict. north carolina's largest insurer considering cutting plans for its customers to signed up under the affordable care act. at 6:30, some reason the customers say the move would leave them with no other option for insurance. $1,000 per seat to subsidize an 80-mile flight. next this morning the reason lawmakers voted to keep the controversial program in place.
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the dow up 183, the (donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise)
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arrested in ba rain. officials say they were covering the anniversary of that gulf nation's 2011 uprising over political rights in the country. bahrain's interior minister says "one of the four journalists was wearing a mask and participating in attacks on police alongside other rioters. ". the new york-based committee to protect journalists has called for their immediate release. they say six other reporters are also being held over their work. your tax dollars are helping to pay for empty flights to and from small airports. >> lawmakers voted last week to keep the essential air service program going. they want to make sure airlines continue offering service to smaller cities. one of the most expensive subsidizes is the 80-mile trip from macon to atlanta. it would only take about an hour and 15 minutes by car, but delawares are subsidizes each -- taxpayers are subsidizing each ticket by $100,000. the national airport transportation association says
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dropped significantly in 2015. it reported four accidental airline crashes with 136 deaths. that is down 600 deaths from 2014. the numbers do not include two major plane crashes, a germanwings crashed into the french alps and a metro jet crashed in egypt. the group says those were deliberate. new this morning, travel and leisure magazine readers voted charleston, south carolina the number one city in north america. in a survey readers said the city balanced sophisticated taste with smalltown charm. charleston is also home to four of the survey's top five best small city hotels. those qualities earned charleston a spot in the magazine's list of best cities in the world. the city finished second place under kioto, japan, but above florence, italy and a city in cambodia. members of a south charlotte church packed a zoning council meeting with plans to demolish their building. but the move to voters came as
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>> i can guarantee you the sign does not say love when we come down on a rezoning night. >> next this morning the new plan church leaders have for the area and how they intend to keep the design intact. still following slippery travel up to the north. i'll have the timeline for when the temperatures warm up enough to help to ease the situation. >>reporter: drivers are back home after dozens of crashes caused massive delays.
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roads flooded out, trees and power lines down, several schools closed or delayed. right now this morning we've got team coverage with the lasting impact for the winter storm -- from the winter storm, tracking the rain and bringing the alternate routes around those problem spots. good morning, it is a very busy morning, i'm john paul. >> i'm stephanie maxwell. cms is on a normal schedule today, but we have a list of other schools that are closed or delayed running at the bottom of your screen and also on wsoctv.com. it is 6:30 now. let's get a check on your first forecast. meteorologist keith monday is in severe weather center 9. soon we will be done with this. >> yeah.
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we're still seeing kind of the residual lingering effects because of the icy weather we had last night up north and temperatures up there are still below freezing. there's still a little bit of moisture rolling its way into iredell county out of catawba county now, but slippery conditions are found all through catawba, all through iredell, alexander and all points west. so a good chunk of the northern section of the viewing area still finding slippery conditions, even over into the northern part of rowan county between edictville, north of china grove and into salisbury, still very slippery. near freezing at statesville, conover 31, mooresville 32, lincolnton, we've slipped back to that freezing point. so all of these areas you're still going to find some very slippery travel to start out the day today. i'm looking over the newest data of our futurecast timeline, see how much longer we will be dealing with these kind of temperatures, and it may still take another hour or so to warm it back up. it's all been quiet in charlotte this morning. we're warm enough to keep the problems have been adding up to the north.
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monitoring a lot of issues and also here in town we do have a road blocked because of standing water. it's pretty much gone now, but earlier as we were in the area, we noticed police were blocking the roadway at hawthorne lane. this just north of central avenue. looks like it's receded for the most part, but we still have the barricades up for folks heading through the area. we've actually been watching folks as they've been driving up onto the sidewalk. i would suggest avoiding it this morning. again, this is hawthorne just north of central avenue. so you can use the plaza as an alternate route. just east of that we've got a minor wreck on central near eastway, but not seeing a big delay there. now we've got two problems on 85, one in either direction just south of highway 152 out of china grove. avoid both directions of interstate 85 in the area. use highway 29 as that alternate. john. we are seeing a jump in all the number of power outages that we've been following this morning. take a look, three counties in our area seeing the biggest problems, catawba county we're looking at about 650 people without power. but over in caldwell county as people are starting to wake up
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number jump by about 250 in just the last 30 minutes. there are now 900 customers with no power. burke county, we've been showing you video of multiple trees coming down, taking down the power lines there. they also have more than 900 outages right now. we're going to stay on top of these reports, let you know when we see any progress. right now the rain is moving out of charlotte, but not before it caused dozens of crashes on slick roads. several major roads were shut down during the height of the storm late last night. eyewitness news reporter joe bruno is live on 77 where channel 9 warned you this could happen. joe. >>reporter: here at exit 23 in huntersville, we haven't seen any major issues this morning, but dozens of crashes yesterday caused hundreds of drivers to be stuck in standstill traffic. that includes on i-40 where a jackknifed truck caused nine wrecks in a two-mile stretch. there were no injuries, but drivers were delayed for hours
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on highway 321 near maiden. this wicked wi beer truck crashed, causing all of this beer to spill on the side of the highway. further south on highway 321 near gas tonia, this ambulance flipped over while trying to make its way to another crash. the major problem, though, was on i-77 near statesville. the highway didn't reopen until this morning. drivers were stuck in standstill traffic for five hours. >> the two dogs are at home and have all four paws crossed. we took them out before we left. >>reporter: and coming up in 15 minutes what truck drivers were doing that delayed the highway from reopening sooner. reporting fiscal cliff huntersville, joe bruno, channel 9 eyewitness news. >> thank you, joe. channel 9 is also tracking flights after widespread delays and cancellations yesterday. just 30 minutes ago we told you 69 arrivals were canceled. well, that number just rose to 72. the number of canceled departures also increased from
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most of the affect flights are from the midwest and northeast. you can check your flight status on wsoctv.com and see complete coverage of the storm's impact. we posteds on our home page. a south charlotte congregation is support ago plan to tear down their church and replace it with hotels, shops and apartments. yesterday nearly 100 people showed up to support the plan to tear down sharon united methodist on sharon road right near south park mall. a church has worked with a developer to come up with a plan for about three years now. the building is known for its ski slope steeple there, but the pastor says they want to be remembered differently. >> we want to be known for more than our architecture, just helping people connect with god, serving our community. >> city council still has to approve this construction. we're told a vote could happen next month. today a matthews woman accused of stealing from senior citizens at plantation estates retirement home will make her first court appearance.
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15 felony counts. police say she ran a cleaning service and stole nearly $10,000 worth of her client's jewelry. thousands of people across north carolina may be forced to find new health insurance next year. the state's largest insurer, blue cross blue shield may not offer plans plans through the affordable care act after this year. channel 9 spoke with pat and tom mcelvane of salisbury who got blue cross insurance under the aca. they say other insurance companies wouldn't take them due to their preexisting conditions and their lives depend on that coverage. now they're worried what will happen if blue cross no longer offers aca plans. >> well, not knowing is, you know, about anything is stressful. >> the concern in this kind is if blue cross leaves we'll have very few or no choices. >> the company says it's losing money by offering these plans. in some counties blue cross blue shield is the only company that offers plans through the aca. if you live there, you may have
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or go farther to find a doctor's office. presidential candidates will be spread across south carolina today as the primaries approach, but none of them will be in our area. hillary clinton is the only candidate who will not be in the palmetto state, but president bill clinton will be in greenville campaigning for her. yesterday marco rubio held a town hall in rock hill and ben carson was in lancaster. both seemed to be more focused on surviving south carolina than winning it. >> we're not at that stage in the campaign yet where any state is a must win. i think we have to do well here and we're going to do very well here. >> i still have a very robust social media group, and they still are supporting my campaign. if that stops, then i'll stop. >> donald trump is still leading in gop polls in south carolina. former presidential candidate senator lindsey graham says he is reevaluating whether he would support trump as the presidential nominee. graham previously said he would
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>> when you add up all the things he's said and done, he's unfit to be president of the united states. >> graham said he cannot support comments trump made like suggesting george w. bush caused the september 11th terror attacks. this is the first election cycle where there will be as many millennials as baby boomers. the wall street journal reports about half of millennials don't identify with either party, but polls suggest they are more liberal than previous generations. analysts say in iowa and new hampshire democratic voters under the age of 30 overwhelmingly favored bernie sanders over clinton. republicans, though, were more split. in iowa ted cruz pulled in 27% of the under-30 vote. donald trump got 37% of the millennial vote in new hampshire. 6:38 right now. new this morning fewer americans now believe the u.s. has the world's strongest military. that's korgdz to a new gal -- according to a new gullup poll released yesterday. 49% of americans believe the u.s. is the top military power in the world.
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2/3 of those surveyed said they believe it's important for the u.s. to have the strongest military in the world, but only 37% believe the government should increase defense spending. today the coast guard will begin holding a series of hearings to figure out what caused a cargo ship to sink last fall near the bahamas. all 33 crew members on board the elfarro died in one of the worst u.s. maritime disasters in decades. the ship's captain tried to outrun what became hurricane joaquin, but they ended [ no audio ] jacksonville, florida are trying to figure out if negligence, misconduct or poor safety inspections contributed to this incident. all new for "daybreak," today federal officials will discuss a proposal to protect several shipwrecks just off the coast of the outer banks. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration wants to classify the area as one of its national marina sanctuaries.
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battlefields of world war ii because there are so many sunken ships on the floor including the u.s.s. monitor just off of cape hatteras. the proposal would not impact fishing or diving. we have weather and traffic every 10 minutes. >> here's meteorologist keith monday. we still have some neighborhoods that just won't warm up above freezing. >> yeah. taking some time, even though we're seeing a big, big push of warm air from the south. they're still finding the cold air to the north. so where that line fall ss right here in the foothills from hickory to granite falls, morganton. even in the mountains there are a few spots in the 20s this morning. that's not unusual here for this time of the year, but there's lingering ice problems all through the foothills and the i-40 corridor this morning, lead to a multi -- leading to a multitude of problems up there. if you don't have to go up this morning, i-77 into statesville, don't this morning. give it a couple of hours to let things thaw out. we'll show you the timeline to when these neighborhoods get back above the freezing point as we work our way through later this morning. even had some problems here in charlotte, not icy issues, but some water problems here, mark.
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road closure, this out towards the belmont neighborhood, hawthorne lane, it's closed right now. looks like the water has pretty much receded. it's in the construction zone right now. looks like cmpd just arrived on the scene. they actually moved the cones so folks would stop driving around the closure. if you're heading through the area in the next couple of minutes, you'll want to avoid it. this is hawthorne lane just north of central avenue. you can use the plaza. just got word from nc d.o.t., 74 blocked at i-85 in kings mountain due to an accident scene. if you're heading towards the interstate, take 161 back to i- 85 back towards kings mountain as that alternate route. now, we also have an accident in west charlotte, billy graham parkway inbound just before moores field, left lane is blocked. not seeing a huge delay, but something we'll continue to monitor. and 85 in both directions we have two separate wrecks, one northbound, one southbound just below highway 142 out of china grove. take highway 29 as the alternate route around it. stephanie. a huntersville man accused
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the flooding came from a construction site near hawthorne lane and central avenue. eyewitness news reporter angela hong is live there now where most of that water has receded. angela. >>reporter: stephanie, that's right. and within the last 15 minutes we got some new information. police are now waiting for the charlotte-mecklenberg utilities department to come out here and check out this area to see if it's clear to open back up. you can actually see the area that was the problem. there's a storm drain that is clogged due to some of the debris from the nearby construction zone. so earlier this morning we snapped a picture. this was around 3:30 this morning where a water was covering this road and police were out here making sure no one went through. but, again, that water has since cleared. and that is why people started going around these cones, actually jumping the curb so that they could go around these barriers. obviously that is not a good idea. police recommending that you do not do that, even though you don't see any water out here.
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readjusted these cones so people cannot get through. you will want to avoid this area, and traffic team 9's mark taylor, he's going to let you know how we can do that. >>reporter: for folks heading from the noda area to the belmont neighborhood is where this is happening, hawthorne just north of central avenue. and it's completely blocked block now as angela mentioned. take plaza road as the alternate route around. john. breaking overnight, hundreds of drivers were stuck in the traffic here for hours because of a crash on slick roads. >> yeah. here it is right here. crews finally reopened i-77 in statesville around 2:30 this wreck. eyewitness news reporter joe bruno is live along the interstate to explain how drivers dealt with these major delays. joe. >>reporter: some drivers decide to wait patiently, others decided to sleep. some truckers went to their sleepers to take a nap until the highway reopened. by then troopers had to go door to door to knock on their
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that caused the highway a delay in its reopening. now everything is clear. they were sleeping, though, because of this massive buildup that stretched for eight miles. all this traffic was from several crashes on i-77 north of statesville. most drivers were stuck for five hours. that includes eyewitness news reporter elsa gillis and photographer joey williams. they shot this video while they were trapped in the traffic. the crash cleared at 2:40. it took them another hour for them to make it through the scene. they are back home now as are most of the drivers because of the scene being cleared. reporting live in huntersville, joe bruno, channel 9 eyewitness news >> thank you, joe. we have complete coverage of the storm's impact on wsoctv.com. we posted a slide show from the crashes on the home page and have a list of current traffic problems. it is 6:47 now. we have weather and traffic every 10 minutes. >> let's get right over to meteorologist keith monday who's keeping an eye on this. and it's starting to get better >> yeah. we're seeing small improvements. the wet weather is pretty much done. there's still some mist and drizzle around charlotte, but
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us now, even up into our north between rowan and iredell counties, around cleveland, shinville seeing some light precip moving off to the east. so things are wrapping up. the issue all morning long up here to the north has been the lingering cold temperatures. there's still some fog to deal with through the metro and points to the west, shelby to lincolnton, up into statesville, hickory is clearing a little bit more. we'll all begin to get back into sunshine as we head through the late morning hours today. but for now still damp out there. and with the temperatures that are still below freezing to the north, or at least at the freezing point from shelby, lincolnton and statesville and all points northwest into the foothills. icy travel is still found. encouraged not to go out on the roads this morning if you really don't have to up to the north here. along 340, that i-21 corridor, still a lot of icy patches. south, whoa, different story, low 50s in rockingham and chesterfield. that warm air will surge north in the later part of the morning. in the next 10, 15 minutes here, still near freezing. i would say after 8:00 and 9:00, that's when things will
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and by mid da dramatic improvements. low 50s are back here in charlotte. we'll hit the mid- to upper 50s for highs today. we'll actually warm that number of a little bit more to about 59 here into the city as a westerly wind should help to dry us out. later in the day the clouds start to roll back in and then tonight another batch of rain develops from the west. it won't be heavy rainfall like we had last night. and there will be some mountain snow, although it looks like lower elevations very minimal accumulation, higher ridgetops a couple of inches will add up late tonight. we will see the rain stick with us in the predawn hours tomorrow morning, and, again, all of this will be liquid, no icy travel tomorrow, as the clouds start to thin out by about 8:00 wednesday morning. thereafter, that's the last rain chance we will see for the rest of this week. all dry for the rest of the week and into the weekend, as the temperatures warm up significantly. we're back into the mid- to upper 50s all the way through friday, closer to 60 again friday afternoon, and this weekend ahead looks great with the numbers jumping up well into the 60s, could actually be close to 70 by sunday.
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the weekend always in view, sunshine will be slow to move in today. we'll see it again developing throughout the morning tomorrow, and then full sun here for the end of the week as the temperatures stay very warm with 60s coming in through saturday, close to 70 on sunday. it's going to be a great weekend to get outside and shake off some of the cabin fever we've had for about the last week and a half. staying on top of the weather pattern today, most importantly look at the current conditions in your neighborhood, show you how quickly you'll get above the freezing point to the north >> a week and a half, it's been that long >> a long stretch of cold temperatures. >> kids have been couped up. keith, thanks. traffic team 9's mark taylor monitoring wrecks on 85 near china grove for us now. >>reporter: yeah. we have one on either side of the interstate. neither seem too serious, but they are in the process of clearing out of the traf lanes. northbound at the 68, southbound at the 66. delays in both directions. coming to or from china grove, avoid it. use 29 or main street as that alternate route. other issues that we've been following this morning include
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we're told by nc d.o.t. that u.s. 74 is blocked at 285. if you're trying to access the interstate, 161 over to i-85, that will get you around the road closure. it will take longer, so plan accordingly. inbound billy graham parkway starting to see some delays now because of an accident out towards moores field. you can actually use wilkinson moores field back to the billy graham. an update on this accident sugar creek outbound near i-85, near reagan drive. it is block the inbound right lane. just expect a minor delay at this time. john. checking wall street futures this morning, the dow up 177, the nasdaq up 61. breaking news, we're just getting video here from u.s. 70 where power lines are down. we're going to continue complete coverage of the
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this wr issues as breaking news right now, eyewitness news reporter dave ferraday has been check out multiple reports of trees and power lines down in burke county throughout the morning. >> this is video that dave just sent in of highway 70 near bailey road. you can see these emergency vehicles blocking the road and
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ice on those trees and on the ground. look at that tree that fell. we've been telling you since 5:30 this morning both directions of highway 70 which runs parallel to interstate 40 were closed because of the power lines down across the roads. and take a look at this video that dave shot earlier in nearby morganton. this huge tree fell across the road taking power lines with it about an hour ago. you can see right there firefighters working to cut up that tree and try to get it out of the road. again, there are hundreds of people without power in burke county right now because of all of this damage. and take a look at this crash on i-77. this is near mile marker 42 in iredell county, a pickup there flipped on the icy roads earlier this morning. it's in the median now. it is not causing any traffic issues at this point. no word when they're going to get it out. but last night there were major issues in that area when crews blocked the northbound lanes for five hours. some people even slept in their
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cleared right around mile marker 50. troopers had to knock on car wiis to wake up those drivers and they got the road cleared around 2:30 this morning. we have weather and traffic every 10 minutes. traffic team 9's mark taylor has been monitoring several breaking stories throughout the morning and has an update for us on hawthorne lane. >>reporter: that's right. even though the water has receded, they're waiting on the folks in charge of the construction site to come and deem it safe to pass because this is happening right now in hawthorne lane just off central avenue and police are on the scene right now. they've actually expanded the closure because folks were driving onto the sidewalk. so if you're heading out in the next minutes, hawthorne lane, it is closed just north of central, so you're using the plaza as the alternate route around it. we're also monitoring some significant delays up towards china grove. we have an accident 85 north near the 68, southbound near the 66 and that's why we're seeing delays in both directions, so coming to and from china grove, jump on 29 or main street as an alternate route. and also over on u.s. 74 it'sed -- blocked at 85 at kings
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so 161 back to 85 is the alternate. seeing some significant delays on the billy graham parkway inbound. we've got a crash near moores field starting to back up traffic just off of 85, so you'll take wilkinson boulevard back to the billy graham to get around it. keith. temperatures up in the northern counties are going to sit near freezing for at least another hour or so, up around lincolnton, newton and hickory. slick travel certainly will be found in those neighborhoods. all drying and all above freezing here in charlotte this morning. >> it's been a mess. thank you. your complete breaking news coverage continues with eyewitness news this morning on tv 64
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a report from eyewitness news report fro good morning, america. weather whiplash. a wild swing in temperatures and slick roads spark major accidents. a massive pileup overnight. 17 reported tornadoes in the south destroying homes, businesses, and cars. and a new batch of bad weather moving in right now. just four days until the next showdown, jeb bush calling on his brother to charm voters. >> i've been -- misunderestimated most of my life. >> as donald trump unleashes a tirade against the bushes and ted cruz.
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lied as much as ted cruz. and he goes around saying he's a christian. >> now threatening to take cruz to court. donald trump is joining us live this morning. stunning revelation. the wrestling superstars now speaking out about the secret they kept for so long. why wwe star daniel bryan's wife agreed to keep quiet about her husband's concussions, the ones that eventually forced him to call it quits. everybody and the grammys rocking all night long. lionel richie saying "hello" to music's biggest night. taylor swift taking home a huge award and taking on kanye west. >> you don't let those people side-track you. we could be heroes just for one day >> and lady gaga with an out-of-this-world tribute to david bowie. this is ground control to major tom >> this morning, the secrets
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