Federal officials link North Carolina power outage to other substation attacks in Oregon and Washington
Power grid attack that left more than 40,000 without power in North Carolina may be part of wider plot to target critical infrastructure, federal officials say
Federal officials appear to have linked a “targeted” gunfire attack on substations in Moore County, North Carolina, that have left more than 40,000 without power to similar incidents in Oregon and Washington state, according to reports.
A federal law enforcement memo obtained by NewsNation days after Saturday night’s assault on two North Carolina power grids warned of “physical attacks on substations using hand tools, arson, firearms and metal chains”.
The incidents came in response to an “online call for attacks on critical infrastructure”, the memo from an unnamed federal agency states, according to NewsNation.
“In recent attacks, criminal actors bypassed security by cutting the fence links, lighting nearby fires, shooting equipment from a distance or throwing objects over the fence and onto equipment.”
Moore County Sheriff chief deputy Richard Maness told a news conference on Tuesday said no suspects had been identified, according to WRAL.
He said a tip line had been inundated with calls and that it was too soon to determine who was responsible. The FBI has joined the investigation.
Tens of thousands of residents remained without power on Wednesday after the “intentional” and coordinated attacks.
On 11 November, law enforcement officials in Jones County, North Carolina, said that an intentional act of vandalism at a power substation had left 12,000 without power.
In February, three white supremacists pleaded guilty to plotting to target electricity infrastructure with firearms and bombs, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, received weapons training and suicide necklaces filled with fentanyl, and were each assigned a different substation to attack, according to the DOJ.
“The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region,” the FBI said in a charging document.
“They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression.”