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Flooding Closes Roads In Brunswick, New Hanover Counties

Numerous roads in Brunswick and New Hanover counties in southeastern North Carolina are impassable as a storm system that inundated South Carolina moves north.

On its Facebook page, the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office listed almost 30 roads that were impassable. New Hanover County listed on its website about 25 closed roads.

Brunswick County government tweeted that people should stay home Sunday as the dark and additional rain made conditions worse.

The rainstorm around the Southeast has drawn tropical moisture from offshore that's linked up with an area of low pressure and a slow-moving front.

2nd Weather-Related Death Reported In NC

Authorities say a Georgia man has died on a rain-slickened road in western North Carolina, making him the second weather-related death in the state.

Highway Patrol Trooper Travis Cochran says the driver crossed the center line of U.S. 441 in Jackson County, hitting another vehicle head-on.

Cochran says the driver of the first car, 57-year-old Kevin Kent Spurley of Conley, Georgia, was killed in the crash Saturday. Two people in the second car were taken to a hospital.

On Thursday, high winds toppled a tree that hit a vehicle and killed a passenger near Fayetteville.
 

Sunday Hunting With Guns Allowed Started This Weekend

North Carolina residents may have heard the sounds of the hunting season this past Sunday for the first time in more than a century.

Hunting with guns is now allowed on Sundays on private property. The General Assembly passed a law ending the ban that dates back to the 1800's effective Oct. 1.

Sunday hunting had been prohibited largely in deference to the Christian Sabbath, though an exception for bow hunting began several years ago.

There are still plenty of exceptions to the new law. Shooting is still prohibited between prime church-going times of 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and hunters must otherwise stay at least 500 feet away from a church. And the all-day prohibition remains in place in Wake and Mecklenburg counties.

Additional counties could opt out in two years.
 

Tree Falls On Church Built In 1912, Cuts Bell Tower In Half

The pastor of a Taylorsville church damaged by a falling tree says he's certain the building will be fully restored.

Pastor Paul Sink tells the Hickory Daily Record a tree fell about 4 a.m. Saturday on Taylorsville Presbyterian Church. He says the church was built in 1912, and the tree was planted about the same time.

The tree hit the bell tower, cutting it in half and knocking bricks and mortar into the church. The building also has a hole in the roof.

Sink says the largest loss is the bricks, which were handmade.

The church will hold services in the fellowship hall until the building is repaired. On Saturday, people gathered in the sanctuary to salvage Bibles and hymnals and whatever else could be moved to the fellowship hall.
 

Newton, Norman Lead Unbeaten Panthers Past Buccaneers

Cam Newton threw for two touchdowns and Josh Norman returned one of Carolina's four interceptions off James Winston for his second touchdown of the season as the Panthers remained unbeaten with a 37-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Newton tossed scoring passes of six and 12 yards to Ted Ginn Jr. A week after making a game-saving interception in the end zone against New Orleans, Norman scored on a 46-yard runback and later returned a another pick 34 yards to set up a second TD.

Tight end Ed Dickson rumbled 57 yards after recovering a fumble to score in the third quarter.

The Panthers improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2003, when they began with five straight victories. The Bucs (1-3), have lost five straight in the NFC South rivalry and have dropped 11 consecutive home games.
 

Police: Man Vandalizes News & Observer Newspaper building

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police have distributed surveillance images of the man they say broke into the Raleigh offices of The News & Observer newspaper and damaged property inside.

The newspaper (http://bit.ly/1KUnH3O ) reports that a man vandalized the offices early Sunday morning, throwing computers through windows, tossing administrative files outside and leaving several bloody smears behind.

Publisher Orage Quarles III says surveillance footage shows the suspect, who he says appears to have been intoxicated. He says nobody was injured during the vandalism.

Police say the nearby First Presbyterian Church was also vandalized overnight, with similar broken windows and blood traces left behind.

Quarles said The News & Observer had no security guards on duty Saturday night and Sunday morning.

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