North Carolina Power Outage Caused by Targeted Gunfire at Substations
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A power outage in North Carolina is being confirmed by officials as the direct result of targeted gunfire at a nearby substation.
About 45,000 people in a central North Carolina county remained without electricity Sunday afternoon after two electric substations were damaged by gunfire the night before in what officials called an “intentional” attack.
The outages across Moore County, roughly 90 miles east of Charlotte, began just after 7 p.m. on Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said. Officials said the power could be out until as late as Thursday.
At a news conference on Sunday, the Moore County sheriff, Ronnie Fields, said that the attack appeared targeted, but did not provide further details on a motive or suspect. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation were also looking into the attack, he said.
The county declared a state of emergency on Sunday afternoon, including a curfew starting at 9 p.m. on Sunday lasting to 5 a.m. on Monday It was not clear if the curfew would be extended. State Senator Tom McInnis cited below-freezing temperatures and dark roads for the need for the curfew.
“It is going to be very, very, very dark, and it’s going to be chilly tonight,” he said at the news conference. “And we don’t need to have anyone out on the streets — that is the reason for our curfew this evening.”
The senator said the gunfire that damaged the electrical equipment was a “terrible act, and it appears to be intentional, willful and malicious.”
Responding to questions about whether the vandalism was related to a drag show in the area that had faced backlash, Sheriff Fields said he was unaware of any connection, but that the authorities were investigating all possibilities.
“Is it possible? Yes,” he said. “Anything’s possible. But we’ve not been able to tie anything back to the drag show.”
Lauren Mathers, the executive director of Sandhills PRIDE, the L.G.B.T.Q. organization that produced the show, said that while the group had received violent threats leading up to the event, none indicated any kind of planned attack on the region’s power grid.
