Initially, 45,000 people were left without power after a substation in Moore County was attacked by domestic terrorists. | Pexels/Erik McLean
Initially, 45,000 people were left without power after a substation in Moore County was attacked by domestic terrorists. | Pexels/Erik McLean
Thousands of North Carolinians were without power after a deliberate act of sabotage that caused millions of dollars worth of damage to a Moore County power station last weekend.
Vandals sprayed the power station with bullets, shorting out the power supply and leaving 30,000 Duke Energy customers to suffer through subfreezing temperatures for a couple of nights.
"It was a targeted, intentional attack and was not random,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields told ABC 11 News.
Fields said the widespread power outage occurred Saturday night. The first power outages happened Saturday around 7 p.m. in Carthage; they later spread to central and southern parts of Moore County.
Investigators say the motive behind the power grid attack remains unknown, but some social media posts suggested the attack might have been a protest against a drag show in the area. Fields said his deputies are "absolutely" looking into whether there's a link to that, but he added that they're looking at all avenues.
"No group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they're the ones that done it,” he said, according to ABC 11 News.
The FBI is involved in the investigation, and the White House has responded, with National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby saying the administration is monitoring the situation closely and that shoring up infrastructure against external threats is a major priority.
"We've obviously been monitoring this very, very closely and we're in contact with local officials,” Kirby said. “In fact, local officials and specifically local law enforcement are getting federal support on the investigation. So we're going to obviously let that investigation play out. I think we've heard the president talk about this many times. He's made critical infrastructure security and the resilience of that infrastructure, that regardless of whether it's from natural threats, or man-made threats, he's made it a priority since the very, very beginning.”
Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) posted his response on Twitter.
"An attack like this on critical infrastructure is a serious, intentional crime and I expect state and federal authorities to thoroughly investigate and bring those responsible to justice,” he tweeted.
Moore County Schools closed Monday, and Fields imposed a nightly curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. until power was restored.
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