More than 40,000 residents are without power in Moore County, North Carolina. Power may not be restored until Thursday and all because of vandalism. Saturday night “two substations were taken out by gunfire.”
Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a Facebook post on Saturday that just after 7 p.m. on that night, several communities across the county began to experience power outages.
Duke Energy, which operates the power grid in the county, responded to at least two different substations and there was evidence of intentional vandalism at both, Fields said.
“We faced something last night here in Moore County we have never faced before,” Fields said during a Facebook Live press conference on Sunday afternoon.
The sheriff gave a few more details about the situation, saying there was extensive damage found at two substations caused by multiple gunshots, which caused power outages primarily in the central and northern portions of the county.
The authorities are taking the vandalism seriously. An investigation is “underway by the FBI, State Bureau of Investigations, and local law enforcement agencies.” A curfew is in place and they have opened the Moore County Sportsplex as a shelter for people without power. Moore County schools will be closed Monday and they will evaluate the situation each day.
The authorities haven’t given specifics about the investigation since it is still active.
But he did reaffirm the FBI and SBI were working every avenue they can to find the individual or individuals responsible.
No group has accepted responsibility for what Fields called at targeted attack – not calling it domestic terrorism.
“We have no motivation,” he said. “I call them cowards.”
This is ridiculous. Something that may have been attended as a prank has thousands without power. Hopefully, they find out who did this soon, just in case it isn’t a prank and something more.
