XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
XPost: nc.general

In article <st9emf$rrdb$2@news.freedyn.de>
governor.swill@gmail.com wrote:

Those damned Democrat hillbillies can't be trusted with guns.

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.

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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.

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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.

<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-carolina-power-outage-moore- county-state-of-emergency-alejandro-mayorkas-roy-cooper-duke-
energy/>

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