Following what Department of Homeland Security officials have called a “deliberate” attack on a power substation, Moore County, North Carolina, recently declared a state of emergency after power outages in the area that were caused by gunfire.
In North Carolina, 45,000 people were without electricity, according to a CBS report Tuesday. The power was restored to 7,000 customers but 38,000 people were not expected to not have power back until Wednesday or Thursday, according to a Monday news release by Duke Energy.
"We are restoring customers where possible, but the damage is beyond repair in some areas. That leaves us with no option but to replace large pieces of equipment, which is not an easy or quick task,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s general manager of emergency preparedness, according to a news release. "Duke Energy is committed to getting life back to normal for our customers. We thank them for their patience.”
Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said power outages were reported first on Dec. 3, shortly after 7 p.m., CBS reported.
Utility companies that responded to the substations found evidence of intentional vandalism at multiple locations. Fields said in a Sunday news conference that the damage was due to gunfire and was intentional, saying the person “knew exactly what they were doing.”
He said there was “intentional vandalism” at multiple sites and the attacks were “targeted.” Gov. Roy Cooper spoke at a news conference about the outages, and agreed with the sheriff’s assessment saying “this was an intentional attack that caused significant harm to people.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm took to social media to address the outages. Wednesday she tweeted that the Department of Energy has been working with Duke Energy, the FBI and others to investigate the attack. She added that Duke Energy anticipated nearly all customers would have their power restored that night.
Just after 10 p.m. Wednesday, Granholm published a string of tweets saying: "@ENERGY takes the security of our nation's power grid seriously and we work closely with industry to identify and address the evolving threats to the grid. As power is restored in North Carolina, we’ll continue to work with law enforcement on the incident and any other threats to critical energy infrastructure. Those who commit these crimes to our nation’s critical energy infrastructure will be held accountable.”
Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also weighed in on the attacks.
“We are working with energy companies in local communities to address the situation impacting the power that reaches homes in the targeted neighborhoods," said Mayorkas, according to CBS News. "The question is, is it an act of malfeasance or otherwise. Early evidence suggests that it was deliberate. And the investigation is underway.”
Residents in the area told CBS News they were upset, including Steve Wilkins who said, “This is not what I wanted to be doing today or last night or the night before. Stringing power cords. Eating cold ham.”
As power is being restored, the incident remains under investigation by authorities.
