Domestic terrorists wiped out the power grid serving all of Moore County, North Carolina and officials seem to be downplaying the attack as a simple act of vandalism. They’re grumbling loudly about the extent of the damage though. So far, nobody has claimed responsibility and everyone is denying it had anything to do with the “drag queen show at Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines” on Saturday. The lights went out coincidentally at the same time the event was scheduled to start.
Attack on two substations
They aren’t calling it a domestic terror attack but it is. If conservatives turn out to be behind it, they’re wrong to do such a nasty thing to prove a point. This looks bigger than that. The FBI has been on alert for something similar any time.
Thousands of Moore County, North Carolina residents are shivering in the dark thanks to “vandalism of electrical substations,” a local outlet reports.
“Widespread power outages caused by vandalism of electrical substations in Moore County continued on Sunday, with electricity shut off to nearly all residences and businesses, and estimates for restoration of power stretching possibly into Thursday.”
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. (2/3)
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) December 4, 2022
There is no doubt the attack was done on purpose. Nobody has a firm idea what that purpose was but there are a few clues. As related by Moore County and Duke Energy officials, “the outages are the result of intentional damage by firearms to two substations in the county.” That means it wasn’t just some kids shooting up the transformers for kicks.
Nobody is mentioning the similar “practice attacks” back in 2013. In one documented incident, on April 16, 2013, someone “slipped into an underground vault not far from a busy freeway and cut telephone cables.”
“Within half an hour, snipers opened fire on a nearby electrical substation. Shooting for 19 minutes, they surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers that funnel power to Silicon Valley. A minute before a police car arrived, the shooters disappeared into the night.” They rerouted power that time, this time they hit two substations and cut the grid decisively.
the moore county sheriff is now confirming in a press conference that there is evidence firearms were used to damage the electrical substations. federal agencies are involved in the ongoing investigation. https://t.co/8AFFwwhyCL
— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) December 4, 2022
Nothing but ‘cowards’
Sheriff Fields held a press conference to declare the perpetrators “cowards.” He says that because they won’t come forward and accept responsibility for the terror attack. These guys aren’t going to turn themselves in that easily. Fields has no choice except declare local martial law.
The county will be under curfew “from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.” as part of their state of emergency proclamation. All “available local law enforcement officers are working on the case, assisted by State Bureau of Investigation and FBI agents.”
On top of the curfew, “County schools will be closed on Monday and decisions about subsequent closings will be made day-by-day.” Moore confirmed that the attack knocked power out “shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday and then spread throughout central and southern Moore County.”
Authorities in a North Carolina county where 40,000 customers lost power say two substations were damaged by gunfire Saturday night, and a gate at one of the locations was taken off its hinges. The outage is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence.” https://t.co/KR5WshfPl0
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 4, 2022
About 45,000 customers were affected, power company officials relate. The “first substation went offline between 7 and 8 p.m. Saturday night, with a second substation following.”
It was obviously an attack. “they found intentional impact on the substation, damaging multiple pieces of equipment.” All “caused by a firearm.” Fields “stressed” that Saturday’s attack was “targeted,” and that “the persons who did this knew exactly what they were doing.” He also added. “This is gonna hurt.” State and federal investigators “are looking into protesters of a Saturday drag queen show at Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines.” So far, “they have not been able to make that connection.”
Cops made a beeline to interview the protest organizer and came back empty handed. “I welcomed them to my home. Sorry they wasted their time. I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters. I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming, and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.” Cops confirmed the story. Officers “had to go and interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her, but it turned out to be nothing.“