The State of Things

One year ago, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico . The Category 4 storm had winds up to 150 mph and decimated the unincorporated territory. Millions of Americans were left without power and water in Puerto Rico in the wake of the storm. A report from George Washington University estimated the death toll of the hurricane to be 2,975.

When Nathalie Joachim was studying flute at Julliard, Allison Loggins-Hull was pursuing her own love for the flute closeby at the State University of New York’s Purchase Conservatory of Music. Imagine two young African-American flutists both from the New York tri-state area who had never crossed paths until Myspace.

North Carolina is still reeling from Hurricane Florence. The death toll from the storm rose to at least 37 people in three different states Tuesday, with 27 fatalities in North Carolina. There are roughly 10,000 people still in shelters. Governor Roy Cooper urged those who evacuated to stay put.

In the mid-70s the president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority came up with a novel idea that could have changed the way Hollywood did business.

The cases of around a dozen missing or murdered young black women in Rocky Mount scarcely made headlines when they occured in the early 2000s. City officials seemed more concerned with public perception than in finding the murderer and meting out justice. Meanwhile, the vagrant killer of a white woman in the same city was apprehended within the day.

Though Hurricane Florence has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, its floodwaters continue to wreak havoc on North Carolina communities.

The wealth gap in the United States is growing – and it has negative consequences beyond the economy. A recent report from the Pew Research Center shows the American middle class continues to lose financial ground to the upper class.

Laura Chambers did not want to come back to Hillsborough. But after the impulsive investigative journalist is fired from her job at the Boston Globe, she is forced to stumble home and take a gig at a small, hometown paper. After a missing girl turns up dead, Laura sees it as an opportunity to get back on the front page.

Tropical Depression Florence is well inland, but North Carolina is still reeling from the storm. All of the state’s 100 counties have experienced some form of National Weather System alert, from flash flood watch to hazardous weather outlook. In a two-hour special broadcast to stations around North Carolina, The State of Things speaks with residents, journalists, officials and experts about the devastating storm impact.

North Carolina is feeling the effects of Hurricane Florence . The major storm is expected to cause catastrophic flooding and long power outages. Host Frank Stasio talks to WUNC Capitol Bureau Chief Jeff Tiberii and WUNC politics reporter Rusty Jacobs for the latest from the governor and on state response. National Weather Service meteorologist Kathleen Carroll gives updates from the Raleigh office. Spectrum News Reporter Chris Williams , who is stationed along the coast where the hurricane is