North Carolina
Old country store on the Haw River keeps NC traditions alive
There was a time when old-fashioned general stores carried the memories and stores of rural North Carolina — locals sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch, somebody picking a guitar while the older folks swap stories and kids run in and out buying penny candy and bubblegum.
Today, many of those old country stores can be found decaying along rural North Carolina roadsides. With antique paint curling on fading storefronts, their drooping wooden porches are only fit for ghosts – and no one can hear their stories.
But tucked away down the winding rural roads of NC, there’s a place not far from the Triangle where the old traditions continue – where you can sit in a rocking chair and listen to local music on the front porch on a balmy summer evening. Or, in the fall, you can bundle up with cider on a crisp afternoon and listen to authentic storytellers keep our state’s country lore alive.
Almost a century old, stepping into Bynum’s general store is like stepping back in time. It’s one of the few remaining original stores from the historic mill village, which sits on the bank of the Haw River.
On a summer evening, you might see people dancing barefoot in the grass while a musician strums the guitar, or families running down to play near the river. There’s a food truck on-site, and several locals sitting on the front porch in rocking chairs.
Many of the dozen or so original stores in the unincorporated community of Bynum have closed their doors over the decades. In fact, Bynum itself has faded from the maps, losing its zip code, post office, movie theater and central cotton mill over the decades after a bypass funneled traffic away from the town.
However, the vibrant community refuses to let their way of life – or their history – just fade away.
Bynum Front Porch: Step back in time in Chatham County
Fueled by volunteers and community members, these old store keeps the Old North State’s legacy of storytelling, music and community alive.
“I was born within a stone’s throw of the store,” said Ted Williams, a native of Bynum.
Williams’ parents built the general store, now known as Bynum Front Porch, in the mid-1930s. Before that, both his parents worked at the cotton mill, which was central to Bynum’s existence. Families lived in traditional mill houses, and kept entertained by visiting the five or six stores in downtown. There was also a movie theater and a school.
“It was a vibrant community,” says Williams. “There was a lot of traffic through here at the time.”
As a kid, Williams recalls sitting on the porch, where people gathered to tell stores, swap jokes and laugh and talk with each other.
“I remember sitting down here and just listening to the grown folks talk,” he said. “It was really special.”
In those days, the town had around 60 or 70 kids, according to his memory, and the bus had two stops:
“One at this store and the other at a store down the street,” he said.
The highway went right through Bynum, bringing plenty of visitors and money to the town. However, when a bypass was built around the little mill town in the 1950s, the town began to struggle. It was the beginning of the end.
Soon, locals began going to nearby towns to shop. Eventually, stores began closing down and even the post office decided there weren’t enough residents to stay in town. Bynum lost its zip code and became incorporated.
The mill stopped running in the 1980s, and a fire destroyed it a few decades later.
But despite the setbacks, the people of Bymum refused to let their little town’s history just fade away. Bynum was a vibrant community — and would fight to stay that way.
Keeping Bynum’s history alive
Many waterways across North Carolina are dotted with overgrown stone foundations of mills and surrounding villages that washed away, burned down or were otherwise lost to time. Some communities became ghost towns; others were swallowed by the development of rapidly-growing cities nearby. In the mountains, the ghost of an old mill town provides a glimpse of what can happen when history is lost. Not far away, the community of Merry Oaks – whose general store is abandoned, but for sale – is under pressure by large nearby developments.
Instead of letting the tide of history wash Bynum away, Ron Hatley, chair of the board for Bynum Front Porch, wants to ensure Bynum’s history is preserved.
“It’s a constant struggle,” he said.
There are efforts in place to preserve the old water tower, as well Bynum Bridge – an abandoned bridge closed to vehicle traffic that currently serves as a popular walking path for locals, as well as a ‘freedom of expression’ canvas for painters. Colorful and vibrant, the bridge provides sweeping views of the Haw River. Every Halloween, hundreds of people come from around the region to see the bridge lined with glowing, carved pumpkins.
“One of the things we’re doing is an SOS, Save our Store. The Bynum Front Porch building is over a creek, and it’s 90 years old,” he said. “We’re trying to raise money to shore up the foundation. Back then, they just laid down some rocks and built right on top!”
Just as it always has, Bynum Front Porch serves as the beating heart of the community. It may no longer sell groceries, but it you can still trade a story or two and keep those old NC memories alive.
“It’s stayed open as a community center,” said Hatley. “Summer music, storytelling, yoga, morning coffee, scout troop meetings, gatherings for local organizations and leaders.”
Every Friday in summer, Bynum Front Porch hosts a summer music series in the grassy lawn beside the store. Then, starting in September, guests can come sit and listen to a storyteller at the old country store – just like kids listening to the older folks swap tales on the front porch.
North Carolina
Concord resident, candidate for North Carolina House dies unexpectedly, officials say
CONCORD, N.C. (WBTV) – A Concord resident and a candidate for the North Carolina House District died Monday afternoon, according to the North Carolina Democratic Party.
Kim Delaney, a Democratic candidate for the North Carolina House District 73, died unexpectedly around 2:05 p.m. on Monday, Jan 26, according to officials.
In a statement by the North Carolina Democratic Party they said Delaney was surrounded by family when she died and left behind two children.
You can read the full statement below:
“We are deeply saddened to share the passing of Kim Delaney of Concord, a candidate for North Carolina House District 73, who passed away unexpectedly on January 26, 2026.”
“Kim passed away at 2:05 PM, surrounded by her family.”
“Kim was a devoted mother and leaves behind two children. Our thoughts are with them, as well as with Kim’s family and loved ones, during this incredibly difficult time.”
“Kim was a kind, sincere, and caring person who believed in community and in showing up for others.”
The family established a Spotfund to assist with funeral expenses and to support her children. To donate you can click here.
Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.
North Carolina
Iced-over North Carolina faces grid preparedness questions after other states enact stricter laws
North Carolinians scrambled to find generators ahead of this weekend’s ice and snow.
Now questions are resurfacing about whether the state should adopt laws to better protect the power grid. The answers may lie in other states, such as Texas, which also dealt with winter storms this weekend.
Winter Storm Uri in 2021 left at least 200 people dead and more than 4 million homes and businesses without power when it hit Texas five years ago.
The crisis caused Texas lawmakers to pass laws requiring public utilities to better prepare power infrastructure for extreme weather. The law also created penalties for noncompliance and allowed funding for backup power at hospitals and other critical facilities.
The new requirements appear to be working: As of Monday, there were few to no power outages reported in nearly all Texas counties, according to KDFW-TV, a Dallas news station, even though this weekend’s storm brought record-breaking snowfall to the state.
North Carolina, which faces winter storms occasionally, still relies primarily on emergency response and voluntary utility measures, raising the question: Should the state wait for disaster before taking certain proactive actions?
“This storm reaffirmed that preparation is key and can make a real difference in saving lives,” Gov. Josh Stein told WRAL Monday.
Duke Energy, which provides power to nearly all North Carolina businesses and residents, says that even without mandates it still regularly takes voluntary action to prepare and improve the state’s power grid.
North Carolina has had more power outages than all but three other states since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.
“The Texas situation should have sprung us into action, to think about this in advance,” North Carolina state Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said, adding that she’s not aware of any rules here similar to what Texas instituted.
Measures in North Carolina
Harrison said there were some measures she believed were beneficial but they are no longer laws. There is weatherization funding available for individual homeowners under the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. “Unfortunately, that funding has been cut pretty dramatically at the federal level,” Harrison told WRAL.
WRAL asked Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, whether the state should adopt new laws to better protect the power grid from future storms. Neither indicated they’d support new requirements on utilities.
A spokesperson for Hall says he’s focused on “maintaining a strong rainy-day fund to ensure we are prepared to weather future natural disasters if necessary.”
Berger said he’s been in touch with emergency officials and that “since we’re still in the middle of the storm and do not have damage estimates, it is premature to discuss details of potential legislative action.”
When storms approach the state, state and federal officials routinely declare states of emergency, have state transportation crews treat icy roads, activate the National Guard, and provide temporary Medicaid flexibilities such as early prescription refills.
Duke Energy says its emergency response strategy doesn’t only consist of sending crews out after a storm to repair downed lines. “We have a very robust multi-year grid improvement strategy that we’ve worked with our regulators to establish that helps us to strengthen the grid, to make it more resistant to outages from severe weather,” Jeff Brooks, a Duke Energy spokesman, said in an interview Monday.
The company plans its spending five years out.
“Roughly half of what we’re spending in our current five-year plan is for modernizing and improving the electric grid. And that would include reliability and resiliency improvements,” Brooks said.
Money spent on improving the state’s power grid might simply be passed onto customers in the form of higher power bills. Texas, unlike North Carolina, requires utilities to weatherize generation, transmission and natural gas facilities for extreme weather. And Texans also have higher power bills.
According to the website Choose Energy, which analyzes electricity costs nationwide, Texans pay more for their power than North Carolinians do, although both states are below the national average.
Other states have taken different approaches to power-outage worries. Virginia has a state program — the Emergency Shelter Upgrade Assistance Grant Fund — that provides matching funds to localities to install or repair backup energy generation infrastructure at emergency shelters.
Brooks said Duke Energy takes it upon itself to make sure it is cost effective for customers. Duke has what it calls self-healing technology across the state that can help automatically detect power outages and reroute power to restore service faster, Brooks added.
The energy giant has also buried some of its power lines, another strategy that comes with added expense but has been proven to lessen power outages.
These are voluntary measures since North Carolina doesn’t require utilities to do the work.
Substation vulnerabilities
Extreme weather isn’t the only risk to power infrastructure. Lawmakers considered new measures after a December 2022 incident in which Duke Energy substations in Moore County were shot at, knocking out power for thousands for several days and contributing to at least one death, according to authorities.
The state legislature responded by raising criminal penalties for damaging utility equipment. But lawmakers did nothing to take proactive measures to prevent similar attacks in the future. A bipartisan bill that would have required Duke to put in place security upgrades at its facilities — potentially cameras, fences, sensors or guards — wasn’t allowed up for a vote at the state legislature, where Duke spends substantial amounts of money on lobbying and campaign contributions.
“Our objective was appreciating people wanting to help and trying to find good solutions, but making sure that we could find the right solution that met our unique needs as a utility,” Brooks said.
Technologies and Costs
Duke Energy has deployed self-healing grid technology in pilot areas to automatically reroute electricity around outages. The technology prevented millions of hours of power outages for people and businesses statewide in 2025, Duke told WRAL last week.
Burying power lines is another option, but Duke says it’s expensive and can take longer to repair. Burying lines might also be difficult in places with rocky terrain or other difficult soil or topography.
Do Proactive Measures Make Sense?
Duke energy said mandates could raise costs for customers, and that current technology and emergency response may suffice.
The current measures appeared to be enough for this weekend’s storm. At its height Sunday, 31,000 utility customers across the state lost power, which is a small percentage of the state’s 11 million residents and thousands of businesses.
Duke Energy says it is evaluating more advanced grid resilience technologies. The company is also a financial backer of a public-private push to boost university research, called NC Innovation, whose projects include research from UNC-Charlotte on improving power grid efficiency.
But without legal requirements, large-scale infrastructure investments are left to the utility’s discretion.
Stein said last week, ahead of the storm, that he was confident in Duke’s ability to respond quickly to power outages.
“They are taking this storm very seriously, and they are bringing in assets from other states that are not as threatened as North Carolina is,” Stein said.
The Syracuse women’s basketball team staged a furious late rally to force overtime, but lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels 77-71 Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Orange trailed by eight points with less than 3:30 remaining in regulation, but held the Tar Heels scoreless for the rest of the quarter. A jumper and a free throw by Journey Thompson, a layup and then a pair of free throws by Uche Izoje and a free throw by Sophie Burrows tied the game.
The Tar Heels scored the first seven points of overtime, though, five of them by Nyla Harris, to come away with the win.
Izoje led the Orange with 27 points, a career high, and 12 rebounds. It’s her ninth double-double of the season.
Dominique Darius added 19 points for SU. Sophie Burrows had 10 points and Journey Thompson 10 rebounds.
Harris led North Carolina with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Syracuse, now 6-3 in the ACC and 16-4 overall, face Georgia Tech on Thursday at the JMA Wirless Dome. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
North Carolina improved to 6-3, 17-5.
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