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Holiday Ends With Busy Travel Days

The Thanksgiving holiday week is coming to a close, with North Carolinians on  the roads and in the air returning home Sunday and Monday. Officials at Charlotte Douglas Airport say they expect peak crowds the next two days, with more than 26,000 travelers departing daily for return trips home, as well as many arrivals.  That’s approaching the airport's daily traffic record, on the day after the Democratic National Convention in September 2012, when 29,000 people departed from Charlotte.  

If you’re picking someone up at the airport, the good news is that the new hourly deck is open. That new hourly deck is free for the first hour and just a short walk from the terminal.  The daily parking decks also had spaces as of this morning. You can find a real-time parking map at parking.charlotteairport.com

HURRICANE SEASON ENDS WITH ONLY 1 LANDFALL

The six-month Atlantic hurricane season ends today, and North Carolina was the only state where a storm hit the mainland along the East Coast.  Hurricane Arthur, which hit the Outer Banks on July 3 and 4, was the only storm to make landfall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  State officials say no one died and damage was limited to flooding and some property damage on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands. Part of NC Highway 12 buckled from the churning waves that came ashore and had to be repaired.  Altogether this year, there were eight named storms in the Atlantic, with top winds of 39 mph or higher. Six of were hurricanes with top winds of 74 mph or higher.

STORM ERODES N. TOPSAIL BEACH

It wasn’t a hurricane, but the storm that moved up the Atlantic Coast last weekend caused even more erosion on North Topsail Beach. Town spokeswoman Carin Faulkner says power, sewer and water have been disconnected from 22 structures at the north end of Topsail Island because so much of the beach around them has been worn away.     The erosion on the island has continued despite a channel realignment project at New River Inlet in early 2013.

SC PROMOTES WINTER WEATHER AWARENESS

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has declared Winter Weather Awareness Week in South Carolina. Starting today, emergency officials are joining with the National Weather Service to give tips, warnings and advice about how to handle the occasional snow and ice storms that can hit South Carolina.

19-YEAR OLD DIES IN SHOOTING

Police are investigating the shooting death of a 19-year-old man in North Charlotte on Friday afternoon … Police were called to the 4300 block of Sunset road around 12:30 pm, where they found Jose Cuestas with a gunshot wound. He died Saturday morning at Carolinas Medical Center. Police are investigating, and say Cuestas was shot by someone he knew. 

MAN SHOOTS HIS WIFE, THEN HIMSELF

Autopsy results show a South Carolina man shot and killed his wife at their vacation home in Waynesville, west of Asheville, last weekend, then turned the gun on himself.   A Haywood County Sheriff's spokeswoman said the the bodies of Richard and Eva Haynie were found in the home in the North Carolina mountains on Monday after Eva Haynie didn't show up for her job as a fifth-grade teacher in Pickens County.

MAJOR SEWAGE SPILL IN HICKORY

There was a major sewage spill into Lake Hickory on Friday. Hickory city officials announced Saturday that an estimated 435,000 gallons spilled from the Moose Club pumping station on 9th Street Court Northwest. The untreated wastewater was discharged into Lake Hickory in the Catawba River basin.  The State Division of Water Resources is reviewing the incident.

N.C. STATE ENDOWMENT GROWING

The endowment at North Carolina State University is approaching $1 billion. That's a significant milestone. Just 92 of the 900 schools tracked by the National Association of College and University Business Officers have endowments over $1 billion. In North Carolina, only Duke, Wake Forest and UNC-Chapel Hill have reached that amount.  Schools use endowments to supplement day-to-day operations, weather budget cuts and pay for top professors and financial aid for the best students.   North Carolina State's endowment was $885 million this past June, up $382 million from 2010.   The university plans a major fundraising campaign and could top $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June.

David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.