A county in central North Carolina where about 45,000 people were without electricity declared a state of emergency and was under curfew on Sunday night, after two electric substations were damaged by gunfire the night before in what officials called an “intentional” attack.
The outages across Moore County, roughly 90 miles east of Charlotte, began just after 7 p.m. on Saturday, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said. Officials said the power could be out until as late as Thursday. It was not clear if the curfew, which started at 9 p.m. on Sunday and was to last until 5 a.m. on Monday, would be extended.
At a news conference on Sunday, the Moore County sheriff, Ronnie Fields, said that the attack appeared targeted but did not provide further details on a motive or suspect. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation were also looking into the attack, he said.
State Senator Tom McInnis cited below-freezing temperatures and dark roads for the need for the curfew.
“It is going to be very, very, very dark, and it’s going to be chilly tonight,” he said at the news conference. “And we don’t need to have anyone out on the streets — that is the reason for our curfew this evening.”
The senator said the gunfire that damaged the electrical equipment was a “terrible act, and it appears to be intentional, willful and malicious.”
Responding to questions about whether the vandalism was related to a drag show in the area that had faced backlash, Sheriff Fields said he was unaware of any connection, but that the authorities were investigating all possibilities.
“Is it possible? Yes,” he said. “Anything’s possible. But we’ve not been able to tie anything back to the drag show.”
Lauren Mathers, the executive director of Sandhills PRIDE, the L.G.B.T.Q. organization that produced the show, said that while the group had received violent threats leading up to the event, none indicated any kind of planned attack on the region’s power grid.
“We did not receive any specific threats that would lead me to be able to say to you, there’s a correlation,” Ms. Mathers said on Sunday, adding that although it was the fourth time the group had put on the show, they had never received such pushback. “Drag shows in general have come under attack recently.”
She said that the show, which was held Saturday evening at an old movie theater in Southern Pines, about 80 miles southwest of Raleigh, was about 40 minutes in when the power suddenly went out.
Members of the audience took out their phones to light the room as one of the performers continued singing a cappella, before erupting into a spontaneous rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Ms. Mathers said it was “a beautiful moment.”
But the show’s organizers soon realized the vast reach of the power outage, she added, and quickly called it off to ensure everyone’s safety.
As utility crews began responding to the affected substations, “evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the sheriff’s office said in an earlier statement. Deputies were then deployed to various locations to provide security.
Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for Duke Energy Corporation, which provides power to thousands of businesses and homes in the region, said that the damage to the station was “intentional” and would require extensive repairs that could last several days.
“Unlike, perhaps, a storm where you can go in and reroute power somewhere else, that was not an option in this case,” Mr. Brooks said, adding that the repairs could extend as far as Thursday. “We do want citizens of the town to be prepared.”
About 47,000 homes and businesses in Moore County, considered a retirement area by many, are served by Duke Energy, and 95 percent of those were without power by Sunday afternoon, Mr. Brooks said. A few hundred customers in the surrounding edges of the county were also affected, he said.
Officials opened a shelter at the Moore County Sports Complex, said Bryan Phillips, director of public safety for the county. Schools will be closed on Monday.
Power failures are not unfamiliar to Moore County residents, as snowstorms and other episodes of extreme weather have challenged the grid in the past. The parts of the substations that were damaged need to be replaced completely unlike when pieces can be repaired in place after extreme weather knocks out power.
Some people went to the FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital to charge medical devices or phones, but it had not seen an influx of patients as of Sunday afternoon, said Gretchen Kelly, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
The hospital, which serves a 15-county region in the Carolinas, is running on backup generator power and has enough fuel to last at least five days, with the ability to procure more if needed.
“We’re fully staffed, so we don’t have any concerns,” Ms. Kelly said. “We’re ready to take care of the community as needed.”
On Saturday night, Andrew Wilkins was driving from Washington, D.C., to Moore County to visit his parents for the weekend, and he noticed all the lights were out, including at a gas station and pharmacy, as he was approaching.
“I love going to my parents’ farm because it’s quiet, but all around me right now you can hear generators off in the distance.”
One of their neighbors is storing medicine for the local pharmacy in their refrigerator with the power from their generator. Mr. Wilkins and his family have access to a water supply, but he said other rural residents who rely on wells and pumps might lose potable water.
From Memphis, Graham Pitts was in contact with his parents in Moore County, though their cell service is sporadic. They, along with other family members, were in an uncle’s house that has a wood-burning stove, Mr. Pitts said.
Some of his relatives went to a grocery store for coffee and in search of information this morning, he said.
“I’ve been there when we lost power for several days and lost everything in the freezer,” he said. “So this is something that people have, not under these circumstances, but people have dealt with this.”
April Rubin, Livia Albeck-Ripka and Matt Stevens
Source link
