Special Reports

  • Offshore Drilling Series Begins

    This is the first of more than 40 stories that we will publish over the next two months on offshore drilling and its potential effects on the N.C. coast.

  • Below Normal Hurricane Season Expected

    Although the 2015 hurricane season got off to an early start with Tropical Storm Ana, forecasters say overall tropical weather activity in the Atlantic will likely be below normal.

  • State Fines Duke Energy $25 Million

    The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources yesterday levied the largest environmental fine in state history against Duke Energy for groundwater contamination from coal ash ponds at the company’s L.V. Sutton power plant near Wilmington.

  • Sea-Level Rise Redux

    There were no fireworks this week over the release of a new draft report on sea-level rise along the N.C. coast. The new report contains no scary forecasts, no hockey stick graphs.

  • Hurricane Hazel: What We’ve Learned

    In the last of three parts, we take a look at how hurricane forecasting, state planning for emergencies and building codes have changed since Hazel hit 60 years ago today.

  • Hazel: The Benchmark Hurricane

    In the second part of the storm’s 60th anniversary series, we relive Hurricane Hazel with survivors from Brunswick, New Hanover and Carteret counties.

  • Hurricane Hazel 60 Years Later

    Sixty years ago this week, the most powerful hurricane to strike North Carolina devastated much of our coastline. In the first of three parts, we relive Hazel with people who lived through the landfall.

  • Hogs After Floyd: Nothing’s Changed

    Hog lagoons flooded after Hurricane Floyd and state officials made many assurances to change the way hog waste is treated. Fifteen years later and nothing much had changed.

  • The Legacy of Hurricane Floyd

    North Carolina’s worst natural disaster and costliest hurricane made landfall 15 years ago this week. In the first of two parts, we take a look at the legacy Floyd left in its wake.