At least 36,000 customers were left without power in Moore County, North Carolina on late Saturday after an electrical substation was damaged by gunfire. Authorities are now investigating what they believe to be an intentional criminal act.
"We faced something last night, here in Moore County, that we've never faced before," the county's sheriff, Ronnie Fields, said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. "But I promise you, we are going to get through this, and we are going to get through this together."
According to authorities, the damage to the substations were caused by “intentional vandalism”.
At around 7 PM on Saturday several communities in the county had begun to experience power outages. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) are now looking into the attack, but have not been able to find those responsible nor a motivation.
“We don’t have anything,” Fields said, when asked about a possible motive. “No motivation, no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who [did] it.”
Moore County—about an hour outside of Raleigh—is now under a curfew between 9 PM and 5 PM for the next few days, according to Fields. Schools are closed for Monday while the Moore County Parks and Recreation Sports Complex is operating a shelter.
Municipality and county officials “have formed a plan for the night and the next few nights that we may be out of power. It’s a very serious situation,” Fields said. “So we’ve come to an agreement to best protect our citizens and to protect the businesses of our county, we’re going to implement a curfew tonight.”
The cost to repair the substation damage is likely to be in the “millions” of dollars, the sheriff said.
“Equipment will have to be replaced,” Brooks said, adding that there had been “intentional impact” on the substation, and that the damage would not allow rerouting of power. “We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with large equipment. This will be a multiday restoration for most customers, extending possibly to Thursday.”