RALEIGH (AP) — Like the opening act at a concert, 2011 in North Carolina may be remembered more for what came later.
Next year will see plenty of major developments in the state, from a gubernatorial election to a springtime referendum on whether to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution. The Democratic National Convention is coming to Charlotte in September, and North Carolinians can look forward — if that’s the right term — to a year of campaign ads and political visits as a state in play during the presidential election.
But 2011 deserves to be remembered as more than an opening act. The last 12 months saw plenty of important stories unfold, even if people would like to forget many of them, like deadly weather and the persistently sluggish economy.
“Hurricane Irene struck us a hard blow and reinforced the fact that development on the Outer Banks will always be precarious at best,” said Harry Watson, director of the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of the American South. “Across the state as a whole, we are still in a very deep recession which is even worse here than in the country at large.
“So in my view, 2011 was a tough year in North Carolina,” he said.
Amid the gloom, there were bright spots.
“On the positive side, North Carolina is the 10th largest state and had the fifth largest population growth in the United States this year,” he said. “While having more people creates problems of its own, the growth does indicate that North Carolina is still a very attractive to live, raise a family, move a business, and so forth.”
Here are some of the most memorable moments of 2011 in North Carolina — the good and the bad.
Wicked Weather: On April 16, a record of 28 tornadoes touched down across the state, according to the National Weather Service. Twenty four people were killed, including 12 in Bertie County alone. Some parts of North Carolina were still recovering when Hurricane Irene made landfall at Cape Lookout on Aug. 27. Six people in the state died, more than 1,100 homes were destroyed, farmers were wiped out in some areas and damage estimates ran into the billions. And a week before Thanksgiving, a 3-year-old girl and her grandmother were killed when a twister struck their Lexington home.
GOP on Top: After sweeping to victory in 2010, Republicans spent 2011 in charge of both chambers of the legislature for the first time since the 1870s. They trimmed the budget, drew up new political district maps and clashed with Gov. Beverly Perdue on everything from voter identification requirements to the Racial Justice Act. They also voted to approve a referendum for May asking voters if same-sex marriage should be prohibited in the state constitution.
Edwards in Court: The former U.S. Senator from Chapel Hill and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee was indicted June 3 on charges of violating federal campaign finance law. Prosecutors say Edwards used illegal donations to cover up an affair. Edwards has pleaded not guilty and a trial is scheduled to begin next year. And although he’s not directly a party to it, a lawsuit in Orange County court also made news by hinging on a dispute over property his former mistress says belongs to her, including a purported sex tape featuring Edwards.
War’s End: On Dec. 18, the last American military personnel in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait, ending almost nine years of war. The milestone had a somber resonance for North Carolina, as David Hickman, a 23-year-old soldier and Greensboro native, was the last American military service member to die in the conflict, falling in Baghdad on Nov. 14. Even with the end of the war, though, North Carolina — with major military installations like Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune — retains a critical position in American defense strategy.
Crime and Punishment: State Bureau of Investigation agent Duane Deaver was fired in January after a review of the agency’s crime lab found serious flaws in blood analysis work. Deaver maintained he did nothing wrong, but in December a judge said problems with the former agent’s work were a key reason to grant a new trial to Michael Peterson, the Durham novelist convicted of murdering his wife. In September, Elisa Baker was sentenced to up to 18 years in prison for the murder of her disabled, 10-year-old stepdaughter Zahra, whose disappearance and death shocked people in the U.S. and the girl’s native Australia. That same month, Robert Stewart was convicted of murdering eight people at a Carthage nursing home in 2009, one of the worst massacres in state history.
School Days: Wake County voters returned Democratic-backed candidates to power on the state’s largest school board, although it took one runoff race to complete the five-seat sweep. The contest was watched nationally — and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — because Republican-backed candidates had earlier scrapped the district’s student assignment policy which aimed at achieving a socioeconomic — and, therefore, racial — balance in student populations through busing.
Economic Challenges: The state unemployment rate remained above the national jobless rate all year, sticking at 10 percent or more since July. Charlotte-based Bank of America lost its title as the country’s largest bank, selling off businesses and cutting costs. Duke Energy and Progress Energy said they would merge to form the country’s largest electric utility. But fears over potential anti-competitive impact in their North Carolina and South Carolina home markets pushed the chances of completing the deal into 2012.
Big and Bigger: During a year when overall American population growth was at its lowest since World War II, North Carolina added roughly 121,000 new residents, according to U.S. Census estimates. That’s the fifth-highest rate in the country, as the state continued to act as a magnet both for people relocating and young families having children. But the growth wasn’t enough to win North Carolina another seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Teen Idol: Garner’s Scotty McCreery was just 17 years old when he became part of what’s turning into a tradition — North Carolina natives making a splash on “American Idol.” The former Lowe’s Foods bagger’s mature-beyond-his-years singing style won him fans of all ages, and touched off a bout of Scottymania in his home town in the weeks leading up to his victory.
It’s too early to say which of these events will be remembered five or 10 years from now, if any of them will. The only thing that truly cements a year’s reputation as good or awful or epochal — think 1968, or 1989 — is hindsight, said Diana Bell-Kite, associate curator of the N.C. Museum of History and one of the organizers of “The Story of North Carolina,” a permanent exhibit unveiled this year.
“It takes some historical perspective, even a generation’s worth of perspective, to look back and see what’s of key significance to the story you’re telling,” she said. “It’s hard to single out particular events at this early stage to claim they have historical significance.”
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Associated Press writers Martha Waggoner and Emery P. Dalesio contributed to this report.
The Associated Press
12/30/11 11:03