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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT
The WHQR News Team has recapped several major stories for the year, and now, it’s your turn to let us know what events you think were most important and have had the biggest impact on our community.Then, tune in the week of December 26-30 when WHQR will be airing its 2011 Top Ten Countdown.

#7 News Story of 2011: Mother Nature

In 2011, southeastern North Carolina endured a slew of weather emergencies including deadly tornadoes in April, Hurricane Irene in August, and a massive wildfire that burned for much of the summer.

WHQR’s Asia Brown reports that Mother Nature’s wrath is #7 on our top ten countdown of news stories this year.

Hurricane Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout in late August, devastating a long swath of communities along the East Coast. In North Carolina, seven people died from the storm.

As of this month, more than $67 million has been approved in federal disaster assistance grants for North Carolina homeowners, renters, and small businesses.

And that was just Irene.

Back in April, dozens of tornadoes killed 24 people statewide. Along with the human toll, thousands of homes were either damaged or destroyed.

In addition to the tornadoes and Hurricane Irene, a summer blazed scorched more than 30,000 acres of the Holly Shelter Game Land in Pender County. Cost estimates for containing the fire top $3.5 million.

Tune in all this week as we air WHQR’s 2011 Top Ten Countdown of news stories across the Cape Fear region and state. 

After growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia, Michelle attended Virginia Tech before moving to Wilmington to complete her Master in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Her reporting and nonfiction writing have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, within the pages of Wrightsville Beach Magazine, and in literary journals like River Teeth and Ninth Letter. Before moving to Wilmington, Michelle served as the general manager for WUVT, a community radio station in Blacksburg, Virginia. She lives with her husband Scott and their pups, Katie, Cooper, and Mosey.