More than 40,000 homes and businesses are without power
Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields reports that the mass power outage across the county is being investigated as a criminal occurrence.
Just after 7 pm on Saturday evening, December 3, 2022, several different communities across Moore County began experiencing power outages.
As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence — including gunfire — was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites.
“[We] have formed a plan for the night and the next few nights that we may be out of power. It’s a very serious situation,” said Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields. “So we’ve come to an agreement to best protect our citizens and to protect the businesses of our county, we’re going to implement a curfew tonight.”
Reporter asks question that all of us want to know, is this domestic terrorism?
The sheriff says he can’t answer to domestic terrorism, that would be for feds to determine. But he says “this was targeted.”
He adds “they absolutely knew what they were doing.” @wsoctv
— Genevieve Curtis (@GenevieveonTV) December 4, 2022
This is one of the heavily damaged @DukeEnergy substations in #MooreCounty. Sheriff: the suspect or suspects shot into the station, taking out the grid. He also said the perpetrator had knowledge of the system and “knew exactly what they were doing.” @WNCN @NewsNation @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/afMh8fkPb8
— Lillian Donahue (@LillianDonahue) December 4, 2022
Moore County is under a curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. local time.
Moore County Sheriff’s Deputies and various other law enforcement agencies within the county responded to the different areas and are providing further site security. The FBI is also involved in the investigation.
Anyone with any information should contact the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at 910-947-2931.
