News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
North Carolina Forecast: Clouds move in Tuesday as temps rise mid-week ahead of trick-or-treating ๐
SUMMARY: Meteorologist Chris Michaels reports that today‘s early voting weather is pleasant, with no rain forecasted. Temperatures will rise from the upper 50s in the morning to a high of low 70s by afternoon, typical for late October. A warm front is approaching, ensuring a dry and warm Halloween, with highs reaching 77 in Roxboro, 80 in Raleigh, and 82 in Fayetteville. Trick-or-treating will see mild temperatures in the 70s and mid-60s by evening. Looking ahead, unseasonably warm conditions will persist, with highs well above the average until a cool down early next week.
Tuesday will be mostly cloudy and slightly warmer, with highs reaching the upper 60s to lower 70s. There’s a slight chance of some sprinkles or light showers in the Sandhills and Coastal Plain in the afternoon.
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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
Job numbers: Kettle’s boil rising on embattled Labor Department leader | North Carolina
SUMMARY: Congressional leaders from North Carolina and Virginia have set a new deadline for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Julie Su to explain recent issues, including flawed job reports showing discrepancies of nearly 1 million jobs and premature data releases. A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Bureau of Labor Statistics employees were unaware of technical problems until inundated with queries. Representatives Virginia Foxx and Bob Good accuse the Biden administration of overstating job growth and mishandling confidential information, asserting that this undermines accountability in government. They demand full disclosure on these oversight matters as Su continues to serve in her role without formal approval.
The post Job numbers: Kettle’s boil rising on embattled Labor Department leader | North Carolina appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
Two sought refuge together, but Swannanoa River’s flooding proved fatal โข Asheville Watchdog
Asheville Watchdog is bringing you the stories behind the staggering loss of life from Helene, the children, parents, grandparents, multiple generations of a single family, all gone in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the mountains of western North Carolina. This is the third installment.ย ย
Zubila Shafiq saw her husband, Omar Khan, for the last time on the night of Sept. 26.
Khan was in his van near the Swannanoa River on River’s Edge Road in the Azalea neighborhood when Shafiq and their two young boys, Zach, 9,ย and Zayn, 7, talked to him on FaceTime. Shafiq invited him to her place โ they were separated โ but he declined. Instead, he parked his van higher up a hill. Then they hung up.
โThat was the last I saw him,โ Shafiq said. โOn FaceTime. And he was actually still in his car.โ
What happened after their call became clear over the ensuing days, after the floodwaters subsided and the debris settled, allowing Shafiq to go on a regionwide search for Khan, one that ultimately led her to his neighbors and a grim story of what were likely his last moments.ย
Installment 1: ย Helene took entire families, couples, children
Installment 2: Fairview landslides from Helene that killed 13 were among worst in North Carolina history
Khan, 44, returned to his residence at the Riverview Apartments on River’s Edge Road east of Asheville after the FaceTime call. Neighbors told Shafiq he had not evacuated.
A little before 11 a.m. on Sept. 27, neighbors threw Khan ropes in the hopes of rescuing him. A โcivilian rescue,โ Shafiq called the vain attempt to assist him in a Facebook post after the storm.
โI tried to save him,โ one of Khan’s neighbors told her.
The neighbor told Shafiq that they had talked to Khan that morning as he and Samira Zoobi, a fellow resident of the apartment complex, were perched on a balcony above the water.ย
โThank you,โ Khan responded, according to the neighbor. โGod bless you!โ
Then the apartment broke away and spun down the bloated, raging Swannanoa.
Neighbors called 911. Rescue workers arrived in about an hour, Shafiq said, but it was too late. By the neighbor’s account, the building had come off its foundation โ which, according to photos, was metal stilts โ flipped on its side, drifted away and became lodged on a riverbank.
The neighbor threw rocks at the building to see if someone would respond. Search and rescue workers went in, but found no one.
Days later, Shafiq tried to get to Khan’s apartment. That proved impossible, but she came close enough for one of her sons to spot something amid the debris.
โThat looks like our van,โ he told her.
Someone working on the rescue and recovery efforts in the area asked Shafiq, โDo you want me to go check and see? What’s your license plate?โ
He walked down the road and returned.
A punch in the gut
โIt was our van, and it was completely demolished,โ Shafiq said. โIt just, like, punched me in the gut, because I was like, โThat’s the van. That was supposed to be safe.’โ
Khan was not in it.
Shafiq and others called and visited organizations everywhere: the VA hospital, the A-B Tech medical shelter, the Ag Center emergency shelter. No Khan.ย
Strangely, during Shafiq’s search, Khan’s texts started coming through days after they were sent as she got close to spots of cell service. He had used fellow tenant Zoobi’s phone to try to reach her.
โโMy unit’s submerged. I’m at the top floor with another tenant. I’m okay. I don’t have my phone,’โ Shafiq said, summarizing her husband’s texts. He lived on the second floor of the apartment building and had gone up to the third floor with Zoobi.
โHoping that the search and rescue efforts are continuing, especially in the Azalea area near [John B. Lewis Soccer Fields] and [the Blue Ridge] Parkway bridge,โ she posted on Facebook on Oct. 2. โPlease continue to be on the lookout and contact me or anyone close to me with any information.โย
Shafiq wrote in the post that people looking for Khan were keeping track of recovery efforts and making calls to more than 20 organizations.
โWe just need to know where Daddy is. Please keep Praying!!!โ she wrote Oct. 6.
Two days later, she started her post with โOmar still missing,โ but followed it with a painful acknowledgement: โThe search efforts are continuing, but FEMA and APD explicitly said it is now โrecoveryโ (of bodies) not rescue at this point,โ she wrote. โHad a few difficult conversations today, which took an emotional toll on me. Honestly, it was hard to be hopeful today.โ
The Asheville Police Department kept in touch throughout Shafiq’s search, she said.
Finally, on Oct. 9, 13 days after Khan disappeared, she got the call she dreaded.
โDo you have a quiet place?โ an APD employee asked her.
ย โAnd she said, โWe found him,’โ Shafiq said.
Khan’s body was recovered Oct. 9 on Moffitt Branch Road near Azalea Baptist Church, according to his death certificate.
A cadaver dog had alerted recovery crews of a body late on the 8th, Shafiq said. An officer had stayed with Khan’s body overnight. He was identified Oct. 9 by a license and passport found in his pocket.
โI don’t know what the days ahead will look like’
โWe all know how smart he was, and he put his license and passport in his pockets,โ Shafiq posted on Facebook on Oct. 9. โFingerprints also confirmed. He was found on Moffitt branch road near his apartment/car so I pray he did not suffer. I don’t know what the days ahead will look like and I may not remember any of it.โ
Khan โwas amazing,โ Shafiq told The Watchdog. โSuper compassionate, always going above and beyond. Really tried to help people. Was always dependable.โย
The family couldn’t have a traditional Muslim burial for Khan but they had a graveside service Oct. 13. About 70 people came, including one person who drove 15 hours.ย
Khan was a pharmacist at the Westgate Shopping Center CVS. He’d been a pharmacist since 2014, Shafiq said. Well known by patients and the community, he had worked in Brevard and on Patton Avenue and Tunnel Road.
โHe was a good person,โ Shafiq said. โHe had a pure heart and almost like an innocence. I don’t know how to say it, because he was cynical about things, but also, so innocent because he was a good person.โย
He volunteered his time with Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s pharmacy. He helped out at flu shot clinics. He volunteered at his son’s daycare kitchen.
โIf he saw something that he could do and he could help with, he did it,โ Shafiq said.
And, to his last days, Shafiq said, Omar was always working on himself.
โHe wanted to be dedicated to service,โ she said. โAnd if that was his goal, I think he reached that goal.โ
Samira Zoobi
Samira Zoobi, 28, had been standing on a balcony of her apartment building with Omar Khan waiting for a rescue, when the Swannanoa River swept the structure away.
Zoobi’s best friend, Molly Anne Sheehan, collected accounts of what happened to Zoobi from several witnesses and shared them with The Watchdog.
โSami’s apartment in the RiverView complex, was on the second floor of a four-unit, two-story building that was on stilts by the Swannanoa River,โ Sheehan said. โAround 8 a.m., Sami posted a story on Instagram showing the water level from a bedroom window. The water was already completely covering the road that led out of the neighborhood to Tunnel Road.โย
The water was all the way up the stilts the apartment rested on, Sheehan said, more than one story tall but not yet flooding the apartments.ย
That changed over the next couple of hours.
โBy 10:30 a.m., the last texts from Sami were received before cell service went out; the water was up to the second floor where Sami was with a neighbor [Khan] waiting to be rescued by boat; the entire bottom apartments were filled with water,โ Sheehan said. โThis made the building very unstable, and it eventually ripped off the stilts and floated down the road a little. At this point, early afternoon, help was there actively trying to get them all rescued, the team couldn’t get ropes to them before the entire apartment came loose to the water again and swept it, and the people, farther down the road.โ
After the displaced building was found the same day, search and rescue crews searched it, but didn’t find Zoobi or Khan.
Zoobi’s body was found two days later, nearly a mile and ยฝ from the apartment, according to a death certificate. The cause of death was listed as โlandslide injuries including drowning.โย
Zoobi’s mother, Collete, told The Watchdog she did not want to revisit the story of her daughter’s death. Zoobi’s father, Fadi, did not respond to a request for an interview.
โFadi and I are grateful for all the support everyone has provided,โ Colette Zoobi said in an Oct. 2 Facebook post. โAsheville experienced catastrophic floods this past weekend. Samira J Zoobi was unable to be rescued. Our family is devastated. I miss her so much. I appreciate all the support we have received from our friends, family, Samira’s friends and coworkers.โ
Asheville T-Shirt Co., where Zoobi worked as a graphic designer, posted on Facebook about Zoobi’s death Oct. 2:
โYesterday, we lost a beloved member of our Asheville T-Shirt family. Our hearts are shattered and we are left broken. Samira was all the things you would come to love and adore in a friend. They were the kindest of souls and incredibly talented in their craft. We were blessed to have spent 3.5 years working alongside Samira; the fond and quirky memories of Samira will forever remain in our hearts. โฆ
โSamira, we love you. We’ll miss you. You will always be in our hearts.โ
Zoobi studied new media at UNC Asheville and minored in anthropology.
โSami’s the most creative person I know, even in their saddest times,โ Sheehan told The Watchdog. โSami was not only my decade-long best friend, Sami was my confidant, therapist, best advice giver, voice of reason, my calm, my art pal, creative twin, my hairdresser, dermatologist, nail tech, screen printer, my life coachโฆ so much more. Sami just played so many roles for so many people, so generous and truly caring, Sami did everything they could for their friends, was the best gift giver, and just such a genuine and thoughtful soul.โ
Sheehan said the two were best friends for a decade and at one point lived just 15 minutes apart without knowing it.ย
โIt took years and years for us to actually meet in Asheville in 2014, but we were always so close before we knew how actually close we would become,โ she said.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
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The post Two sought refuge together, but Swannanoa River’s flooding proved fatal โข Asheville Watchdog appeared first on avlwatchdog.org
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed
20 cars hit by bullets at Crabtree in 'cowboy-style' fight, DA says
SUMMARY: A recent gunfight reminiscent of a cowboy showdown occurred outside Crabtree Valley Mall, according to Wake County’s district attorney. Jaquez Brown is in custody after allegedly shooting into a car occupied by a 13 and 15-year-old during a gang altercation. The DA reported over 20 vehicles were struck in this shootout among rival gangs on what was supposed to be a calm Saturday afternoon. Remarkably, no injuries were reported, but the incident put local residents at risk. Brown’s bond was increased from $20,000 to $200,000, and he is scheduled for his next court appearance on November 18.
A 24-year-old charged in a weekend shooting inside a Crabtree Valley Mall parking deck faced a judge for the first time on Monday.
In court, Wake County Assistant District Attorney Matt Lively said Jaquez Brown, 24, is facing charges for shooting into a car with a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old inside. At least 20 cars were hit by bullets, he said, although no one was injured.
Lively said the Saturday afternoon shooting in the Macy’s parking deck was the result of a fight between rival gangs, describing it as a “cowboy-style gunfight.”
“He put the safety of all the residents of Wake County at great risk basically with a cowboy-style gunfight at Crabtree mall,” Lively described in court.
A judge on Monday increased Brown’s bond to $200,000 plus electronic monitoring.
On Saturday around 1:35 p.m., Raleigh police officers responded to multiple shots fired in the parking deck behind the mall on Creedmoor Road.
Police told WRAL News there were no reported injuries.
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