Shootings at power substation cause North Carolina outages
Two North Carolina power substations that were damaged by gunfire, in what is being investigated as a criminal act, could take days to repair and left tens of thousands of people without electricity, authorities said Sunday.
In response to outages, which began just after 7 p.m. Saturday across Moore County, officials announced a state of emergency that includes a curfew from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday. County schools will be closed Monday.
“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,” Gov. Roy Cooper wrote on Twitter.
Roughly 37,000 customers in the county remained without power Sunday evening, according to poweroutage.us.
With cold temperatures forecast for Sunday night, the county opened a shelter at a sports complex in Carthage.
Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a Sunday news conference that someone pulled up and “opened fire on the substation; the same thing with the other one.” Authorities have not determined a motive for the shooting.
“No group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they’re the ones that done it,” Fields said. “We’re looking at all avenues.”
The sheriff noted that the FBI is working with state investigators to determine who was responsible. He also said “it was targeted.”
“It wasn’t random,” Fields said.
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Fields said law enforcement is providing overnight security at the substations and for businesses.
“We will have folks out there tonight around the clock,” he said.
A spokesman for Duke Energy, Jeff Brooks, said equipment was damaged and will have to be replaced. While the company is trying to restore power as quickly as possible, he said, he warned of the potential of outages lasting days.
“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 multi-day restoration for most customers, extending potentially as long as Thursday,” Brooks said at the news conference.
Dr. Tim Locklear, the county’s school superintendent, announced that classes will be canceled Monday.
“As we move forward, we’ll be taking it day by day in making those decisions,” Locklear said.
The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines reported that a gate to one of the substations had been damaged and was lying in an access road.
“A pole holding up the gate had clearly been snapped off where it meets the ground. The substation’s infrastructure was heavily damaged,” the newspaper reported.
The county of approximately 100,000 people, about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh, is known for golf resorts in Pinehurst and other communities.
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