(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – According to law enforcement authorities, two power substations in North Carolina were deliberately shot up by unknown persons, raising suspicions of terrorism as tens of thousands of residents may remain without electricity for days.
Some 35,000 people in Moore County, North Carolina, had no power on Monday after the initial outage affected several thousand more people.
The county, which is about an hour’s drive southwest of Raleigh, has a population of approximately 100,000.
The attacks against the local substations occurred just as temperatures in the region dropped below freezing, Newsmax reported, citing The Associated Press.
“What happened here Saturday night was a criminal attack,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Monday.
He declared that the attack on the power substations presented “a new level of threat,” adding that the FBI was also participating in the investigation.
Utility workers who reacted to the outrage found that the substation gates had been broken, while the equipment had sustained gunfire damage.
“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,” Cooper wrote on Twitter earlier.
According to Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields, “someone pulled up, breached the substation gates, and opened fire at the substations.”
“It wasn’t random,” he stated, noting that the perpetrator’s motive was unclear for the time being.
Fields added that local law enforcement had provided overnight security for the substations.
Jeff Brooks, the spokesman of Duke Energy, the local power utility, said numerous pieces of substation equipment had been damaged in the attack.
He warned the outage could last days even as the company was working to restore power as soon as possible.
“We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment, and so we do want citizens of the town to be prepared that this will be a multiday restoration for most customers, extending potentially as long as Thursday,” Brooks informed.
The head of the Moore County Chamber of Commerce, Linda Parsons, decried the power outage during a busy holiday season as the region relies on tourism for much of its revenue.
She noted that the emergency had led some businesses to resort to methods they used during the pandemic lockdowns, with online or cash-only sales, while offering help to the community.
“Our community has done an excellent job coming together … honestly, it’s quite heartwarming. We’re making the best out of a bad situation,” Parsons said.
Tens of thousands of people braced for days without electricity in a North Carolina county where authorities say two power substations were shot up by one or more people. https://t.co/zzeuNlSvQn
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 5, 2022
