North Carolina
Families across the state buy Christmas trees from western North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, many Christmas tree farms, a major source of income in that part of the state, suffered major damage.
Some farms lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in trees. Still, Fraser Firs from western North Carolina made it out across the state and the country as many families came out Thanksgiving weekend looking for their perfect tree.
“It has to be full,” said Heather Hartman, visiting a tree lot with her family on Black Friday. “It has to be straight. My older girls just told me about the Christmas flair. It’s got to be a little bigger at the bottom.”
For Hartman, this is an annual tradition, but this year, the Booger Mountain tree lot her family picked their tree from is even more important. The trees come from Ashe County, part of western North Carolina hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
“I grew up in western North Carolina,” Hartman said. “I’m happy that this is helping them. I love coming here because I know they come from the mountains.”
Bentley Powell, who manages the Booger Mountain lot off Falls of Neuse Road, said many of customers are asking about western North Carolina and making sure their purchase is supporting farmers in the region. He said it is encouraging to see people wanting to help.
“The money will go right back to the mountains and go to help the people that need it,” Powell said. “Depending on where the damage was, a lot of the workers were displaced. There’s some of them still living in tents and campers in the cold weather.”
Booger Mountain’s farms out west did not lose many Christmas trees, but did see many other trees knocked down, blocking roads on the farm. The biggest issue Booger Mountain and many other growers faced was washed out roads in and out of the farm, creating issues for trucks that needed to get in to load the trees.
Damage to main roads like I-40 is also an issue for growers transporting their trees to the eastern part of North Carolina and beyond.
“They’ve been thrown extra obstacles as far as having to quickly get roads fixed,” said Jennifer Greene, the executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association.
Farmers have worked with each other and NCDOT to get those roads fixed enough to get a tree to every family who wants one, including the Hartmans, in time to get it properly decorated.
“You can’t just put 100 lights around it and call it lit,” Hartman said. “It’s got to be 1,000.”
Christmas tree growers said they are seeing more people interested in buying a real tree, which is a positive sign, but they say those numbers need to keep growing over the next few years to help rebuild.
North Carolina
North Carolina man extradited to Pa. for $100,000 ATM theft spree: police
A 42-year-old North Carolina man on Tuesday was extradited to Pennsylvania after state police said he stole more than $100,000 from ATMs in Snyder and Union counties.
Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Antoni J. Garcia-Cordoba, of Raleigh, North Carolina, stole from four ATMs at Central Penn Bank and Trust locations, state police said.
In a five-hour span, Garcia-Cordoba took $43,000 from three separate ATMs in Snyder and Union counties, according to a police report. On Oct. 1, he stole an additional $58,000 from an ATM in Titusville, bringing the total amount stolen to $101,000.
Garcia-Cordoba is charged with two counts of corrupt organizations – employee, a first-degree felony, and two counts of theft by unlawful taking, a third-degree felony.
After being in custody at a jail in Boone County, Missouri, Garcia-Cordoba was extradited to Union County on Tuesday.
He is being held in the Union County Prison after being unable to post $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.
North Carolina
11 firefighters and 2 others injured after North Carolina house fire and explosion
SALISBURY, N.C. — Eleven firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.
Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.
The Salisbury Fire Department responded to the single-family home around 5 p.m. and found it engulfed in flames.
Eleven of the 22 firefighters at the scene went inside the house to search for occupants and “get water on that fire,” which preceded the explosion, Panell said at a news conference.
“It was enough force that the outside walls blew out, the roof came up and went back down,” Parnell said.
An investigation of the fire and explosion is continuing.
North Carolina
Harrison Bertos scores in OT to help Washington beat N.C. State 3-2 and win first Men’s College Cup
CARY, N.C. (AP) — Harrison Bertos scored 1:54 into overtime after Washington blew a two-goal lead in the second half, and the Huskies beat North Carolina State 3-2 to win the Men’s College Cup at First Horizon Stadium on Monday night.
It was the first national championship for unseeded Washington (16-6-2), who became the first team to win six road matches in the tournament — beating six seeded teams along the way under the guidance of coach Jamie Clark. The Huskies won in their second trip to the final after losing 2-0 to Clemson in 2021.
No. 15 seed N.C. State (16-3-4) made the final for the first time behind coach Marc Hubbard. The Wolfpack were aiming for the school’s first national championship since Jim Valvano led the men’s basketball team to the title in 1983.
Zach Ramsey scored unassisted with 1:12 remaining in the first half and Washington took a 1-0 lead into the break. It was only the second time this season that N.C. State trailed at halftime.
Ramsey scored into an empty net after Wolfpack goalkeeper Logan Erb couldn’t corral the ball at the top of the box. It was Ramsey’s second goal of the tournament.
Richie Aman sent a cross to the center of the goal and Joe Dale knocked it in for a 2-0 lead in the 62nd minute.
Donavan Phillip answered in the 66th, scoring with an assist from Nikola Markovic to cut it to 2-1 with his fourth goal of the tournament. The Wolfpack entered 11-0-1 when Phillip scores.
Taig Healy scored the equalizer with 3:28 remaining with assists from Justin Mclean and Calem Tommy.
Egor Akulov had an assist on Bertos’ winner.
Huskies keeper Jadon Bowton, the only remaining player from the 2021 squad, had five saves.
Erb saved six shots for N.C. State, which was the last school to concede a goal this season.
The temperature was 28 degrees when the match between two teams that had never faced each other began.
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