YANCEY CO, N.C. — A small business owner in Yancey County is trying to bounce back during her busiest season after losing her shop and inventory during Helene. 

Christy Edwards is the owner of Christy’s Crafts and had a shop for 17 years across the Cane River in the Pensacola community. It held all her inventory and great memories.

“I talked to my customers on the front porch a lot. Waved at a lot of friends and neighbors, and I’m going to miss it terribly,” Edwards said. 

The retired art teacher recalls the day of the storm, seeing the floodwaters surround the building before wiping it out in the blink of an eye. 

“I turned and I looked, and my shop was gone. I didn’t see it because we had water in the basement,” Edwards said. 

The shop, which was on her property, was on lower ground than her house. 

“The river came across over here. That little creek was flowing out all of this gravel so it was like a churning mess,” Edwards said. 

Now, only a meter box stands where the building used to be. 

“It’s like losing a piece of my heart. This is what I did every day of my life, come here and meet people and create,” Edwards said.

She said she lost $100,000 altogether and the location where she hosted her Christmas Open House. 

“This was helping me pay for my daughter’s college. This was helping me just to live. Things are so much more expensive now,” Edwards said. 

Mid-November she was working around the clock to make up for lost inventory as she prepared for three holiday markets, including Vintage Market Days of Asheville Metro. 

The event, which will take place Nov. 22-24 is expected to bring 130 vendors to the WNC Agricultural Center. Organizers say half of them are from the region and part of the proceeds will benefit the River Arts District in Asheville. 

Edwards is also moving forward with hosting two Christmas craft shows with local vendors at the Burnsville Town Center. The Holly Jolly Market will be on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Then, on Dec. 7, she will host the Christmas Ornament Craft Show. 

“It’s very important to have this and to keep things going, being normal again,” Edwards said.

She’s not sure if she’ll rebuild her shop again because she worries she could lose it again.

Eric Church paid tribute to his home state of North Carolina and those affected by the flooding of Hurricane Helene with a performance of “Darkest Hour” at the 2024 CMA Awards.

Dressed in a black velvet blazer and accompanied by a choir (including longtime vocal foil Joanna Cotten), a horn section, and strings, Church delivered a grand version of the song, which he rush-released last month to help raise funds for disaster relief. “I’ll do everything in my power/To take even a minute off your darkest hour,” he sang in a falsetto on the CMAs stage.

Like the live version he played at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the recorded version of “Darkest Hour,” which he released as the “Helene Edit,” features strings, a choir, and production by Jay Joyce. The song evokes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Band, and the symphonic compositions of Queen or, more recently, the Verve. It’s rock opera from the Seventies, crossed with Church’s rough-hewn mountain country, all built on the skeleton of his talked-about Stagecoach headlining set.

On Tuesday night, Church played an intimate full-band concert at his Nashville bar Chief’s, which streamed live on SiriusXM. While the set featured his own hits like “How ‘Bout You,” “Homeboy,” and “Springsteen,” it was mostly an homage to Church’s influences: He sang covers by Bob Seger, the Band, Hank Williams Jr., and more, culminating with a reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.”

Church has pledged to sign over all royalties of “Darkest Hour,” in perpetuity, to the state of North Carolina, to further aid in rebuilding.

“‘Darkest Hour’ is a song dedicated to the unsung heroes, the people who show up when the world’s falling apart,” he said in a statement. “This is for the folks who show up in the hardest times, offering a hand when it’s most needed, and standing tall when others can’t. Even in your darkest hour, they come running. When the night’s at its blackest, this is for those who are holding the light, guiding the lost and pulling us through.”

As the recount in North Carolina’s state Supreme Court race gets underway, Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is challenging the validity of tens of thousands of ballots statewide.

One of two Democrats on the seven-member high court, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, is locked into a tight race with appeals court judge Griffin (R). Griffin was leading on Election Day, but Riggs is ahead by roughly 625 votes.

On Tuesday, Griffin requested a recount. He also filed challenges to over 60,000 ballots, according to a release from the North Carolina Republican Party. The release said Griffin’s protests focus on “specific irregularities and discrepancies in the handling and counting of ballots, raising concerns about adherence to established election laws.”

“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process. Protecting election integrity is not just an option—it’s our duty,” Griffin said. “These protests are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.” 

A review of the challenges filed with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) found that Griffin targeted ballots cast by people with prior felony convictions, ballots cast by people whose voter registration may be incomplete and absentee ballots cast by voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal 1986 law that grants some U.S. citizens living overseas the right to vote. Before the election, the Republican National Committee tried but failed to block certain overseas ballots from being counted.

On X, Riggs said Tuesday that Griffin was “taking a tired page from the playbook of previous failed candidates.”

“He’s filed more than 300 protests to challenge 60,000 ballots across NC, in an attempt to disenfranchise voters,” she said. “My goal has always been to ensure that every voter’s voice is heard.”

On Monday, Griffin sued NCSBE over requests he made to the board for voting-related data. Griffin wanted the board to send him lists of “conflict voters” (voters suspected of casting a ballot in person and via absentee). He also asked for lists on how many voters have felony convictions. A board spokesman said the complaint was “unnecessary.”

Recounts began Nov. 20 and will be completed by Nov. 27, according to a Nov. 15 memo Executive Director Karen Brison Bell sent to county elections boards. Recounts are open to the public, the memo stated, and “any person may attend the recount,” including the candidates and the media. A NCSBE meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Read more about the challenges here.