The events the past week in Moore County, North Carolina are quite troubling.
On Saturday December 3rd at 7 pm, gunmen opened fire on two electrical substations causing enough damage to disable the substations and leaving 45,000 Duke Energy customers without power. It took until today, December 7th, for the equipment to be repaired or replaced. Power to customers is being restored via a rollout process of testing and restoring service.
These were not random shooters or the uncoordinated acts of amateurs. Per law enforcement, the attackers knew what they were doing. They knew what to hit to knock the two substations out of commission for four days. 45,000 people were left without power causing, yet untallied, losses to businesses and households. This includes the costs of repairs, business interruption, spoiled food, lost wages, and such. People had no heat and folks in rural areas dependent on wells were without water. This was way beyond just a nuisance.
This was sabotage and that is what is troubling.
Was this a test attack? Can we expect more? This is the reason law enforcement led by the FBI are investigating this with great vigor. As of today, there is no news of progress in their investigations. I am guessing there was no video surveillance. I only say that because no footage has been shared. Was it domestic terrorists? Or a foreign group? I am not sure what would be more upsetting. My guess is that it is domestic, and I think that bothers me more. I do fear we shall see more of these kinds of attacks.
There was a day, not so long ago, in this country where people did not lock the doors to their houses. We left our keys in our cars. Those innocent and trusting times were not all that long ago. It was when I was in elementary school. With the rise of urban sprawl and poverty came a rise in crime. In the blink of an eye, or so it seemed, everyone was locking their houses when they went out and even when they were home. We were locking our cars. In another blink of an eye, people in “rough” neighborhoods were putting bars on their windows and doors.
In that same innocent time, we used to walk into airports and go directly to the gates to board planes or greet friends and families as the got off their planes. There was no security. It was quite pleasant, very convenient, and very innocent. The hijacking of planes ended all of that in another blink of an eye evolving to the security screening run by the TSA that we have today.
We have electrical substations all over the place. While they may fences and barbed wire around them, they are sitting out unprotected like the unlocked houses and cars with the keys in them from my youth. We just saw how a concerted attack could disrupt electric service for four days to 45,000 people. What if the attack was more widespread? What if it was widespread enough it required more spare parts than we have in inventory? What if such an attack was a prelude to something more nefarious?
I hope they get to the bottom of this quickly.
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