Name: Many struggle to pay utility bills
Uploaded: 2020-08-31T16:58:20-0400
Duration: 163764
Description: The drive through line to pay utility bills at PWC have been active. That's because the electric and water company says they are considering cutting power and water to customers who are behind.

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The drive through line to pay utility bills at PWC have been active. That's because the electric and water company says they are considering cutting power and water to customers who are behind.

WHERE IT'S HEADED AND HAVE MORE ON THE TIMELINE. >>> SINCE THE START OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN MARCH, ABOUT 1.5 MILLION UTILITY BILLS IN NORTH CAROLINA HAVE GONE UNPAID. THAT'S ABOUT $260 MILLION PAST DUE. GOVERNOR ROY COOPER'S EXECUTIVE ORDER STOPPING UTILITY COMPANIES FROM SHUTTING OFF THE POWER EXPIRED IN JULY. WRAL FAYETTEVILLE REPORTER GILBERT BAEZ JOINS US LIVE AFTER SPEAKING WITH ONE UTILITY COMPANY, WARNING IT MAY START CUTTING OFF POWER IN SEPTEMBER IF ARRANGEMENTS ARE NOT MADE. >> THAT'S RIGHT. WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE, WE'RE AT PWC, THE PUBLIC WORKS COMMISSION HERE IN FAYETTEVILLE. THIS APPLIES TO JUST ABOUT EVERY UTILITY COMPANY ACROSS THE STATE. PWC SAYS ABOUT 25% OF HIS CUSTOMER BASE, THAT'S ABOUT 30,000 HOUSEHOLDS, THEY'RE BEHIND IN PAYMENTS, BETWEEN $500 AND $1200. RIGHT NOW THE UTILITY COMPANY SAYS THEY'RE TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON. THE DRIVE-THROUGH LINE HAS BEEN ACTIVE. THAT'S BECAUSE THE ELECTRIC AND WATER COMPANY SAYS THEY ARE CONSIDERING CUTTING POWER AND WATER TO CUSTOMERS WHO ARE BEHIND. ALL OF THOSE CUSTOMERS HAVE BEEN PLACED ON AN AUTOMATIC PAYMENT PLAN. >> EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE PLACED THE CUSTOMERS ON AN AUTOMATIC PAYMENT PLAN, IT'S IMPORTANT THAT CUSTOMERS DON'T IGNORE THIS. IF THEY CAN'T PAY OR THEY THINK THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE ISSUES PAYING, THEY NEED TO CONTACT PWC. >> Reporter: ACTION PATHWAYS HAS SOME MONEY TO HELP AND SHE'S HEARD HEARTBREAKING STORIES OF NEED. >> YOU MAY HAVE ONE SPOUSE WORKING, ONE FAMILY MEMBER WORKING, OR THE ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD, THEY'RE NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW. SO THEY NEED ASSISTANCE. THEY'RE NOT ABLE TO MAKE THE PAYMENTS. >> Reporter: THE CITY HAS SET ASIDE MONEY TO HELP WITH UTILITY BILLS. THE FAYETTEVILLE URBAN MINISTRY IS ONE OF THE ORGANIZATIONS HELPING TO DISTRIBUTE THAT MONEY BUT FUNDS ARE LIMITED. >> RIGHT NOW WE'VE GOT A WAITING LIST OF OVER 700 APPLICANTS LOOKING FOR A RENTAL MORTGAGE AND UTILITY ASSISTANCE SO WE'VE BEEN WORKING OUR WAY DOWN THAT LIST FOR THE LAST COUPLE MONTHS. >> Reporter: WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU GET A NOTICE YOUR UTILITIES ARE ABOUT TO BE CUT OFF? >> REACH OUT AND CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE AT 483-1888. LET US WORK WITH YOU AND FIND YOU RESOURCES. >> AND THE UTILITY COMPANIES ARE HURTING, TOO. FOR EXAMPLE, PWC GETS ITS POWER FROM DUKE ENERGY. REMEMBER THAT $10 MILLION TO $12 MILLION? THAT'S HOW MUCH PWC PAYS TO DUKE EVERY MONTH FOR POWER. THE PANDEMIC HAVING A RIPPLE EFFECT THROUGHOUT THE ECONOMY. RIGHT NOW THE FOCUS IS ON KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON AT THE FAMILY'S HOUSE. >> TOUGH ISSUE. GILBERT BAEZ LIVE IN

Gilbert Baez

Michael Joyner

Kyle Morton

Many struggle to pay utility bills 

Duke Energy,Fayetteville,PWC,coronavirus economy,power outage

WRAL-TV News Broadcasts: Watch each newscast live or watch the most recent newscast on demand.

WRAL Late News 

Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

Hi, everyone. Happy Thursday, meteorologist, Anthony Bag Leone here in the WRL SE Weather center, we are on track to see a really nice day if you like temperatures close to normal sunshine. No rainfall expected for us today. Although we could use a little bit more. It is a little bit dry. Our latest drought monitor is showing that across most of the viewing area. We go to 74 though this afternoon, it'll come with a lot of sunshine, maybe some clouds floating on by. But other than that really no big problems for you today. A pretty normal stretch for this the next couple of days or normal 75 below that tomorrow. But close enough, we get to 81 on Sunday, 86 on Monday and then that continues into next week. That will be our weather story next week is definitely some warmer weather and pretty calm with minimal rain chances. Tuesday is really the only chance I have at this point. We of course, have the Durham Bulls though playing at home Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Even into Sunday, we have Dollar dog night bark at the park tonight. I think it's gonna be probably pretty packed temperatures at 71 upper sixties tomorrow. 72 on Saturday, zero rain chances for any of those games. So it's gonna be a really, I think probably busy time at the DB A here into the weekend. 68 for Brugal. Also happening tomorrow as you're headed out there 67 at seven o'clock, sixties for the majority of that forecast looks like, probably partly to mostly cloudy skies. Saturday. Very similar. Just a couple degrees warmer at 74 at four o'clock and then still 78 at eight o'clock in the evening, we head over the next seven. You see temperatures really not moving too much. The next couple of days we get to Monday. That's when we start to climb 8688 on Tuesday and Tuesday during the afternoon into Tuesday evening. That's when we could see a few areas of rain. It doesn't look like a big system right now. But when we have no other chances in the forecast, that's at least the only one that we are watching right now and still warm there into Wednesday at 87.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a seven. Our second number is six and the third number tonight is a nine and our pick three. Fireball number is six. Joining me for tonight's show is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone who's that first winning pick four number, it's zero. Our second number is a nine. Third number tonight is three and our fourth number is one in our pick for fireball number. There it is. It's three. Again, we're turning now to the Carolina cash five and no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $620,000. Good luck. Everyone here's their first win in cash five number. It's a 29. Our second number, it's 37 3rd number tonight. It's 34. Our fourth number is lucky 13 and the final number in our cash five this evening is 12. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Get your winning numbers right here every night on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm Luis Fernandez. Welcome to this afternoon's drawings for Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three number is two, second is eight and the third is eight and our pick three fireball number is five. Join me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for mcconnell LP. Now let's move to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is five. The second is one, the third is three and the fourth is zero and our pick four. Fireball number is five. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education and thanks for your support.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

Many struggle to pay utility bills

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