It is and the house in the background to scale how large that tree is. Folks coming up to look at it. I talked to the crew at the scene and no damage to houses. But several branches and sticks all over the sidewalk. And traffic is getting by. But police are on scene. Those large trees part of the reason why we have had outages in the area. Look at the outage map this is the latest right now. I checked 18,000 people in our area are affected by outages. That number has continued to rise over the past 30 minutes. We will keep tracking that and looking for more images. Those Duke Energy Crews have a long night ahead of them. The storm raced across the foothills and trees ended up in homes. Thousands of people do not have power. Wbtvs Steve Ohnesorge was in the middle of the storm and his story new for you at 5 00 p. M. It did not last long, did not in just minutes some roadways were covered with water. This part of the storm raced through quickly. Check out the line between dark clouds and
Youre coming off i85. Looking at independence expressway, volume of traffic here in center city beginning to heat up just a bit. Lets look at the drive times, coming up from rock hill, 21 minutes, 64 miles an hour. Concord to center city, 17 minute commute, speeds there in the upper 60s and lake norman southbound at 15 minutes and 65 miles an hour. Looking at the overall charlotte commute, most of our major interstates continuing to run in the green and including 485, 77 and 85. Were seeing slow downs now outbound providence road over toward wt harris, albermarle and heavier now around the arboretum area. That is a check of traffic, john, back to you. John this morning a state of emergency declared in North Carolina as areas recover from this weeks severe weather. Governor pat mccrory says the primary problem right now is the number of Power Outages across the state. Now at the peak of the storm, more than 122,000 customers lost power. Mainly in mecklenburg, gaston and forsyth counties
Report is released. We told you yesterday that the state department of the labors report says zip lines should not be regulated. Bonnie bernie died while zip mountains. And her family says they are disappointed about the study. Its just frustrating that to not put a regulation on equipment that is used at a summer camp where children are just there for the thrill and for the fun not as a sport, i think is appalling. And p tuts greater human error potential and it is a risk that does not need to be taken. The decision to regulate zip lines is up to the North Carolina general assembly. The wife of reverend pinckney will speak at duke university. He was shotted and killed in Emanuel Ame Church in june. His wife is there for a forum on the number of dead in a headon train collision in germany has risen to 10. 150 people have been hurt. The rail line is used by commuters who work in munich. Investigators here sifting through the mangled wreckage. Right now alex giles joins us live from the
Midday when were focusing in right now. Youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. Here is chris, first alert traffic. Chris al, thank you, rst alert traffic is sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. If youre getting ready to make your morning commute be aware roads in many cases are wet out there. Taking a live look, this is i77, west boulevard, rolling through center city this morning, you can see the dampness, the spray coming off the vehicles. Quick check of drive times, rock hill to uptown, 21 minutes, i85 southbound from concord, kannapolis, 18 minutes. 65milesperhour. Lake norman commute sitting at 15 minutes here. Most of the major highways are running in the green this morning. Yet to see anything that is snarling the Early Morning commute but it was late last night, early this morning on i85 near sam wilson road where we had pretty major accident which actually shut down part of the interstate. Wbtvs Kristen Hampton joins us
Wbtv news starts right now. Kristen now at 7 00 the polls are open in South Carolina for the democratic primary, the latest in campaign 2016 as the race for president heats up heading in super tuesday. The ciaa full swing uptown, tens of thousands taking part in the tournament and party, a look how security is working to keep you safe make sure everything runs smoothly. A live look outside, pretty shot from the hd tower cam, the sun is pretty much up now. And sounds like warmer temperatures headed toward the queen city. So lyndsay will tell us about that. Good morning, im Kristen Miranda. Lyndsay im lyndsay tapases. Kristen a good morning so far. Lyndsay pretty sunrise as you were saying, we do have warmer temperatures in the forecast. Kristen we need them. Did a birthie tell lyndsay it is chilly right now, in the upper 20s, we have fallen down to 27 in charlotte as of the 7 00 hour, mid 20s salisbury statesville, 28 in boone. 26 rock hill, 30 in chester. Cold start, this afternoon in