"Targeted" Attack on Power Grid Leaves NC County in the Dark
The Facts
On Sunday, authorities announced that at least 40k people in Moore County, NC, were left without power after two power substations were damaged by gunfire. Duke Energy, the power supplier, said that power may not be fully restored until as late as Thursday.
County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said a suspect(s) breached security fencing and opened fire, disabling the facilities and causing the outages. The County declared a state of emergency and imposed a 9 pm to 5 am curfew, also closing schools on Monday and creating a shelter for residents who require electricity for medical equipment or heating.
The Spin
Narrative A
It would be foolish for authorities not to look into a local right-wing group that celebrated news of the attack. The founder of the Moore County Citizens for Freedom, whose members are known to have attended the January 6 riots, applauded the power outage as an act of God to stop the local drag show. These extremists must be investigated.
Narrative B
Instead of pointing fingers while the investigation is still ongoing, more must be done to put preventative measures in place. Though rare, attacks like this show how vulnerable power grids still are in the US. The government must focus on building walls so gunmen can't aim directly at transformers and circuit breakers, and establishing a national response so that state and local authorities aren't left alone when their jurisdictions are attacked.
