A federal memo advised substations in Washington, Oregon, and North Carolina that they were subject to similar attacks as the targeted gunfire against the power grid on Saturday in Moore County, North Carolina. Tens of thousands remain without electricity on Wednesday.
NewsNation received a federal law enforcement warning from the Federal Department of Justice. It stated that “Power stations in Oregon, Washington reported physical attacks against substations using handtools and arson firearms possibly in response to an internet call for attacks upon critical infrastructure.”
According to the memo, the goal is “to cause widespread power disruptions that could have the potential to impact social disruption and violent antigovernment criminal activity.”
“In recent attacks criminal actors bypassed security fencing by cutting fence links, lighting nearby fireplaces, shooting equipment at a distance, or throwing objects over fences and onto equipment.”
NORTH CAROLINA Power Outage: WHITE HOME RESPONDS TO SUBSTATION SABOTY PROBE IN MOORE COUNTY
A Moore County hospital without electricity is visible as an ambulance stands in front of it. Tens of thousands were without power in Moore County on December 5, 2022. (Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
On November 11, Jones County Sheriff’s Deputies reported that 12,000 people lost power due to criminal vandalism. The investigation is ongoing.
In this case, no suspects were identified or arrested.
On Tuesday, 35,000 customers still had no power. However, officials from Duke Energy said that the last customers would be online by midnight Wednesday. This is an increase on the initial estimate of Thursday. According to the power company, gunfire had caused severe damage to its equipment and needed to be repaired.
Crews have begun calibrating the equipment and testing it for synchronization with the electric grid. A few thousand customers will be restored each time power is restored.
Moore County is without power for tens to thousands of people after an attack on two substations December 5, 2022 (Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
Around 45,000 customers were without power during the outages that occurred Saturday and Sunday.
Moore County schools will close Wednesday and Thursday. Moore County residents were found to have died at their Moore County home. However, the cause of death has not been immediately established.
Authorities are yet to identify the motive, arrest any suspects, or make any arrests in relation to Saturday’s targeted shooting of Moore County substations. The FBI is also helping in the investigation.
Fox News Digital confirmed that Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, was briefed about the outages in Moore County.
View of the substation during construction. Tens of thousands were without power in Moore County, December 05th, 2022. (Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
The Justice Department obtained guilty pleas in February from three men who were accused of plotting the shooting of substations or power grids with powerful rifles.
According to the FBI, the defendants were White supremacists. The FBI expected that the damage would cause the government millions of dollar. It could also lead to power being removed for months. This could trigger civil unrest and possibly a race war.
View of the substation during work. Tens of thousands remain without power in Moore County following an attack on two substations. (Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
These were Christopher Brenner Cook (20 years old), Jonathan Allen Frost (24 years old) and Jackson Matthew Sawall (22.22) from Oshkosh. Each of them pleaded guilty in one count to conspiring to give material support terrorists.
For years, federal law enforcement has raised alarms about domestic terror threats to critical infrastructure.
The Department of Homeland Security released a new threat bulletin last week warning that “targets of possible violence include public gatherings and faith-based institutions. The LGBTQI+ community. Schools, racial or religious minorities. Government facilities and personnel. U.S. critical infrastructure. Media. and perceived ideological enemies.”
Moore County outages have impacted thousands of Fort Bragg service personnel and their families. Base leadership is working to ensure that servicemembers have some flexibility in their schedules.
