Moore County, North Carolina, has declared a state of emergency as power outages continue after a "deliberate" attack over the weekend in which gunfire damaged two substations. The attack left roughly 45,000 people without power in North Carolina.
Under the state of emergency, a curfew is in place from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. each night, and residents of the county are encouraged to conserve fuel.
Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said Monday that the company had restored power to about 7,000 customers. About 38,000 remain without power, and Brooks said that it's likely full restoration won't happen until Wednesday or Thursday. In a press release shared earlier in the day, Duke Energy general manager Jason Hollifield said "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 Hollifield said.
The outage has also rendered wastewater pumps in the area out of order, and schools in the county have been closed. Traffic lights are also out. Emergency shelters have been opened to the public.
In Carthage, residents Steve and Meg Wilkins' unheated house has dipped to 55 degrees.
"This is not what I wanted to be doing today or last night or the night before," Steve Wilkins said. "Stringing power cords. Eating cold ham."
Power outages were first reported to police on Saturday, Dec. 3, shortly after 7:00 p.m., according to Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields. When utility companies responded to the substations, "evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites," Fields said Sunday.
One of the Moore County power stations. The Pilot newspaper, Southern Pines
In a press conference held Sunday afternoon, Fields said that the damage had been caused by gunfire. Fields said that the scene was the same at both sites, calling the attacks "targeted" and carried by a person or persons who "knew exactly what they were doing."
No motive has been provided for the attack, which is being investigated as a criminal act. In his Sunday press conference, Fields could not say if the incident rises to the level of domestic terrorism.
On Monday afternoon, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addressed the situation, saying the attack "appears to have been deliberate."
"We are working with energy companies in local communities to address the situation impacting the power that reaches homes in the targeted neighborhoods," Mayorkas said. "The question is, is it an act of malfeasance or otherwise? Early evidence suggests that it was deliberate. And the investigation is underway."
The Charlotte, North Carolina, office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the attack. On Sunday, the FBI office told CBS News it was "investigating the willful damage to power facilities" in the area, but declined to comment further because the investigation was ongoing.
Signage at one of the power stations. The Pilot newspaper, Southern Pines
On Monday afternoon, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper called the attack a "criminal act" in a press conference.
"This was an intentional attack that caused significant harm to people," Cooper said.
In January, a bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security, obtained by CBS News, warned that domestic violent extremists "have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target." But DHS has not issued any statement connecting the current situation in Moore County to extremism.
The U.S. has roughly 55,000 substations. Earlier this year "60 Minutes" reported on how vulnerable they often are.
"There's a very few number of substations you need to take out in the entire United States to knock out the entire grid," Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told "60 Minutes" correspondent BIll Whitaker.
CBS News' Mark Strassmann and Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.
De5perad0 on December 6th, 2022 at 15:51 UTC »
It is insane. I live close to that area. There are gunshots and bullet holes all over a couple substations. It was deliberate. They rammed in the gates to them.
Most folks in the area wont get power back until Thursday or Friday and have already been out of power since Sunday. Temps in the 40s here (5C). We NEED to find these people.
OuterSpacePotatoMann on December 6th, 2022 at 15:40 UTC »
I work for a major utility and this stuff isn’t a joke. This is fucking with the lives of thousands of people - especially those with illnesses that require power. You don’t just order substation components from Amazon - depending on what’s broken some lead times are months if not years. They’re going to have to take these items from projects currently in flight or even emergency stock
I hope these terrorists rot
Edit: Guys if you see something, say something. Credible threats are made on the grid all the time, and it is too large for any one utility to protect entirely. If you see something strange near a substation or power lines, call the police or your local electric utility immediately
Ibewye on December 6th, 2022 at 14:56 UTC »
Funny how 15 years the govt launched a study to see how vulnerable our power grid was. Naturally it was found there were huge vulnerabilities and utility companies were warned to shore up their defenses.
The test was to see if any outside computer could breach the utility companies network and somehow access the infrastructure.
Not only was it able to be breached from a laptop in a nearby home but controls of the equipment were able to be controlled remotely. In the video you can see the result of an outside attack overriding the safety and emergency system of the generator, allowing it to basically destruct itself. 15 years later and here we still are.
https://youtu.be/fJyWngDco3g
Here’s a link. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyber-war-sabotaging-the-system-10-06-2010/