WCNC.com

Emergency vehicles outside a hotel in Boone, N.C., where an 11-year-old-boy died from asphyxia Saturday -- two months after an elderly couple was found dead in the same hotel room.

South Charleston, W.Va., Fire Chief John Taylor doesn’t travel without his portable carbon monoxide detector anymore.

A year and a half ago, Taylor’s fire department responded to a call from the Holiday Inn Express reporting that two men were unresponsive on the floor of Room 511. When emergency responders arrived on the scene, one man was dead and the other was unresponsive.

At least 16 other hotel guests were taken to the hospital and treated for carbon monoxide-related illnesses that day. Taylor said many people experienced flu-like symptoms like dizziness, headaches and fatigue.

“Our detectors go off at 35 parts per million,” Taylor said. “There were over 300 parts per million in the room and levels got higher when we found where the problem was.”

The problem was with the hotel swimming pool's heater. The heater’s exhaust pipe had separated, which caused a carbon monoxide leak throughout the hotel.

Now, in the small town of Boone, N.C., investigators are looking into why three people died in the same hotel room two months apart - all with carbon-monoxide poisoning symptoms.

On Saturday, emergency personnel were summoned to Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza in Boone after two people were found unresponsive on the floor of Room 225.

Jeffrey Lee Williams, 11, was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother Jeannie, 49, was in a coma for one day and was released from the Watauga Medical Center on Monday, according to Gillian Baker, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Two months earlier, at the same hotel in the same room, an elderly couple - Daryl Dean Jenkins, 73, and Shirley Mae Jenkins, 72 who were visiting from Washington state for a family reunion – were found dead.

Autopsy results for the Jenkinses were delayed and it wasn’t until Monday that investigators determined the cause of death to be carbon monoxide toxicity. Jeffrey Williams died from asphyxia, which is an effect of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Boone Fire Chief Jimmy Isaacs hopes that the North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors, on the scene Wednesday, will be able to pinpoint the cause of the excess carbon monoxide. Is is unclear if the pool's heater is the culprit, though Room 225 is located directly above the pool.

Carbon monoxide, often called “the silent killer,” is an odorless, tasteless gas that is the byproduct of combustion and it causes hundreds of accidental deaths yearly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

North Carolina is one of 27 states that require carbon monoxide alarms in residential dwellings, but not in commercial buildings such as hotels.

The same was true for West Virginia, Fire Chief Taylor said, until the poisoning last year at the Holiday Inn Express.

The state legislature passed a law in April that requires places like hotels, hospitals and schools to have carbon monoxide detectors installed. Detectors must be tied to the central fire alarm so the fire department can know what they are walking into before they enter a building.

“This incident really brought the issue to the forefront because we had one person die and one person in bad shape,” he said.

No longer a tropical storm, the weather system called Andrea was making its way up the East Coast, threatening flash floods and dangerous storm surges into Saturday as far north as Maine.

Andrea was wandering up the coast at about 35 mph Friday night, the National Weather Service said. That should give it plenty of time to drop heavy rain on New York and New England overnight and into Saturday afternoon before it scrapes Canada's Atlantic coast and trickles off into the Atlantic Ocean sometime Sunday.

In the wake of the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, residents of the Southeast faced a weekend of cleaning up from severe flooding caused by torrents of rain — as much as 13.9 inches in North Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday alone.

In South Carolina, a 19-year-old man went missing as he was surfing with his brother, NBC affiliate WMBF reported. A search team was spread out along the beach Friday night, but it had been able to recover only a surfboard.

More from weather.com

Paul Stephen / The Star-News via AP

A man checks out the high surf Friday, June 7, along Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

Flood watches were in effect over a huge part of the East Coast, from Maine to Georgia, and Northeasterners who lived through Hurricane Sandy were on alert Friday.

Hoboken, N.J., resident Brian Smalleys, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing his home after Sandy, told NBCNewYork.com that he has trouble sleeping when it rains heavily now.

"I just get nervous. I don't want it to happen again," he said.

New York  activated its flash flood plan — ready to send alerts to cellphones — and issued a hazardous travel advisory as moderate to heavy rain was expected through early Saturday.

In Florida, Andrea left behind considerable damage. 

The weather service recorded eight tornado reports in the state, with damage to houses and trees and downed power lines.

Related:

• Tropical Storm Andrea drenches Florida
• Andrea lifts curtain on hurricane season
• More weather coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 7, 2013 5:34 AM EDT

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Reuters

Tropical Storm Andrea is the first storm of what's predicted to be a busy 2013 Atlantic hurricane season.

Most of Florida's Gulf Coast was under the first tropical storm warning of the year Wednesday as a storm named Andrea debuted the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season.

The warning extended all the way up the state, from Boca Grande off the southern tip of the Florida peninsula to the Ochlockonee River in the panhandle. A less urgent tropical storm watch was in effect up the rest of the East Coast from Flagler, Fla., to Surf City, N.C.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are likely in the next 36 hours; a watch means they're possible in the next 48 hours.

Andrea was parked in the Gulf of Mexico about 300 miles southwest of Tampa, Fla., creeping along at 3 to 5 mph with maximum winds of 40 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 140 miles.

The center of the storm was expected to reach the Big Bend — the sharp left turn where the peninsula turns into the panhandle — sometime Thursday afternoon or evening.

Andrea's then expected to wash over southeastern Georgia and eastern South Carolina this weekend.

Forecasters for The Weather Channel said a combination of wind shear in the upper atmosphere and dry air on the west side of the system was trapping the heaviest winds on Andrea's east side. That means the main concern will be very heavy rainfall through Friday.

Full coverage of Andrea on Weather.com

Several inches of rain could cause localized flooding across the Florida peninsula, with a chance of isolated tornadoes if the right conditions develop, forecasters said. Along the Alabama coast, swimmers were told to be on the lookout for dangerous rip currents.

Related:

• Hurricane season likely to be 'extremely active,' say meteorologists

For Jordan Arwood, the images return in waves. A wall of dirt collapsing and burying his 6-year-old daughter and her 7-year-old cousin in a pit he was working on. Rescue workers frantically pulling the children from thick red clay. Their lifeless bodies placed in the back of an ambulance. 

"When she came out of the hole she was so cold," Arwood, of Stanley, N.C., told The Associated Press in his first news media interview. "I just wanted for her to be warm. I just wanted to put my arms around her and tell her she would be safe....I promised her I'd keep her safe. I promised them I'd keep them safe and warm. I broke that promise." 

The 31-year-old Arwood was operating a backhoe Sunday night in the pit when the walls caved in on the children. The bodies of the two young cousins, Chloe Jade Arwood and James Levi Caldwell, were dug out Monday morning. 

Arwood is the girl's father. His parents, Nancy and Ken Caldwell, had adopted the boy, his twin sister Jazmin and 9-year-old brother Josiah. Arwood lives next to his parents and the pit was on his property. 

Arwood told the AP he reached out to save the children but they were just outside his grasp. He said he dug faster and faster trying to rescue them until he couldn't breathe. 

"When the wall came down, I kept grabbing what was in front of me — grabbing enough dirt, grabbing boulders. ... I wasn't going to stop until I pulled them out. But I couldn't save them," he said, sobbing. 

He paused for a moment. 

"I wish it was me," he said. 

Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Detective Lt. Tim Johnson said investigators were interviewing family members and neighbors about the case. When they finished, they planned to present their findings to the district attorney's office. 

Investigators described the pit as 20 feet by 20 feet, with a sloped entrance leading down to the 24-foot bottom. The children were at the bottom of the pit retrieving a child-sized pickaxe when the walls fell in on them. No permits had been issued for Arwood to dig on the site. 

Johnson said investigators still don't know why Arwood was digging the hole and that people have speculated that the pit was everything from a "doomsday bunker" to an underground structure for "illegal activity," such as growing marijuana. 

Sheriff's deputies on Monday removed guns and a marijuana plant from Arwood's mobile home. Arwood is a felon who is not allowed to have guns. He was convicted in 2003 for possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. 

Dion Burleson, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department, which responded to collapse, said crews filled in the pit Monday. 

Arwood said he was building a rammed earth home, an ancient building method where dirt is used to shape the foundation. Arwood said he had been digging for three months. He said he was building it for his family's future - to give them a safe, affordable eco-friendly home that would last a generation. And he said there was nothing strange about it and that people have been building rammed earth homes since the beginning of civilization. He said he researched the permits and didn't believe he needed one at that stage of construction. 

Charlotte Observer via MCT/Zuma Press

A 13-hour search for two young cousins buried in the collapse of a North Carolina construction site ended around daybreak Monday with the discovery of the bodies of 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell.

He also said he didn't expect the walls to collapse. And late Tuesday afternoon, Arwood walked to the site of the pit and pointed to the spot where his daughter and James had been buried under the dirt. 

Reaching down, he sifted the dirt between the fingers of his right hand. Then he punched the soil in frustration. 
Arwood said he never allowed the children in the construction site. But they were children who loved to play in a big backyard, and sometimes they would sneak in and try to help without warning. But when he spotted them, Arwood said he would immediately kick them out. 
As the walls fell in, he recalled, the children were running to get away. He was within inches of grabbing his daughter's hand. But she disappeared under a surge of dirt. Now he's haunted by the memories. 
"I want to wake up. I just want to wake up," he said. 

Recalling the children, his eyes brighten. They were always running around together — the best of friends. 

Family, he says, is the most important thing to him. He has a broken femur from a car accident, and has spent a lot of time at home in the last two years raising Chloe, James and their siblings. He taught his daughter and James how to ride four-wheelers in the backyard. He taught Chloe how to hunt. 

"This was one side of Chloe: hunting with daddy. She begged me every day afterschool and put on coffee at 4 a.m. to hunt before school. She loved her cammo (camouflage) and providing food for her family, be it gardening farming or hunting," he said, adding that she could hit milk jugs at 200 yards. "I taught her to do so much because I couldn't do it without her after my accident that broke my femur and destroyed my body and left me helpless." 

Arwood was like a father to James. 

"How many times did I have to tell him to brush his teeth? I'll never be able to tell him again, 'Go brush your teeth, brush your hair.' That was the first thing he did in the morning," he said. 

On Tuesday, friends and family in this tight-knit rural community came by to offer their condolences. They brought food to the family. Before Sunday's accident, the house was usually filled with laughter. Now it was somber. 

Ken Caldwell sat on a couch, surrounded by photos of his grandchildren. Nearby was a white karate suit. James is going to be buried in it. He was just a few days shy of taking a test for his orange belt. 

Caldwell, who worked 34 years in a steel fabrication plant, recalled reading Tom Swift books every night to James, a bright, energetic first-grader with a big smile. 

He loved his grandmother, who would tuck him in every night. "After she tucked him in, he would stick out his leg out of the covers and say, "Grandma, my foot's not covered.'" 

Chloe was always running around the house and jumping in his lap. 

"She's so beautiful," he said. 

When he saw the children's bodies in the ambulance, he said he placed his hands on them and asked God to "bring them back." 

While his prayers went unanswered, his faith is still strong — and he's going to use it to carry him through the tough times. 

"You have to trust the Lord," he said. "I'm just grateful I had time to spend with my grandkids." 

Related:
Bodies of two kids recovered after dirt wall collapses

Scene near Charlotte, N.C., where two young cousins were buried in the collapse of a construction site.

Authorities have recovered the bodies of two children who became trapped underneath dirt at a residential construction site near Charlotte, N.C., The Associated Press reported.

The children – a 6-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy – were reportedly playing around an excavated basement Sunday under construction near their grandparents’ home when a wall collapsed, trapping them below ground, according to NBC affiliate WCNC.

Charlotte firefighters, police, a structural engineer and rescuers from surrounding counties all aided in the initial effort to rescue the children.

The names of the children have not yet been released.

WCNC reported that their father was with them and made the initial call to 911 around 6 p.m. Sunday.

This story was originally published on Sun Apr 7, 2013 10:36 PM EDT

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced a bill declaring that the state has the power to establish an official religion — a direct challenge to the First Amendment.

One professor of politics called the measure “the verge of being neo-secessionist,” and another said it was reminiscent of how Southern states objected to the Supreme Court’s 1954 integration of public schools.

The bill says that federal courts do not have the power to decide what is constitutional, and says the state does not recognize federal court rulings that prohibit North Carolina and its schools from favoring a religion.

The bill was introduced Monday by two Republican representatives from Rowan County, north of Charlotte, and sponsored by seven other Republicans. The party controls both chambers of the North Carolina Legislature.

The two lawmakers who filed the bill, state Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford, did not immediately return calls Wednesday from NBC News. 

The American Civil Liberties Union sued last month to stop the Rowan County Commission from opening meetings with Christian prayers. One of those prayers declared that “there is only one way to salvation, and that is Jesus Christ,” the ACLU said.

The bill does not specify a religion.

The North Carolina ACLU chapter said in a statement Tuesday that the sponsors of the bill “fundamentally misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of powers that dates back to the founding of this country.” 

North Carolina scholars also cast doubt on the bill.

“It has elements of not being American,” Gary Freeze, a professor of politics and history at Catawba College, told The Salisbury Post. “I think it goes far beyond religion and frankly doesn’t have a lot to do with North Carolina or tradition.”

Another professor at the college, Michael Bitzer, told the newspaper that the bill is based on discredited legal theory that the states can declare themselves exempt from federal law.

“We saw this in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education,” he said, referencing the integration ruling. “The belief is that the states hold more power than the federal government. If the federal government does something, the states can simply ignore it.”

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 3, 2013 10:45 AM EDT

A father who was cleaning his shotgun accidentally shot his 10-year-old son to death at their home in North Carolina.

Christopher Stanlane was wiping the gun down Sunday afternoon when he shot the boy in the head, Capt. Anthony Thompson of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office told NBC affiliate WMBF.

Stanlane dropped his gun and rushed his 8-year-old daughter to another room while his wife called 911.

The son, Christopher Jr., was pronounced dead by paramedics at the house in the town of Fairmont.

“Most people think that guns are what kill people, and it’s not,” said Sgt. Eric Gavaghan, another county sheriff’s official, who teaches gun safety classes. “The people and their inexperience, their lack of training, that’s what hurts other people with firearms.”