Sheriff: Vandalism cuts power across North Carolina county

CARTHAGE, N.C. — Multiple power substations in a North Carolina county were vandalized in what appeared to be a criminal act, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity, a sheriff said.

The mass power outage across Moore County that began just after 7 p.m. Saturday “is being investigated as a criminal occurrence," Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a Facebook post. More than 40,000 electric customers in the county remained without power on Sunday morning, according to poweroutage.us.

“As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the sheriff said.

Moore County deputies and other law enforcement responded and were providing security at the affected sites, the sheriff's office said.

Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said the company experienced “multiple equipment failures” at substations and the power company was “investigating signs of potential vandalism related to the outages.”

Duke Energy said power was expected to be restored by Sunday evening.

The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines reported that one of its journalists saw a gate to one of the substations had been damaged and was lying in an access road.

“A pole holding up the gate had clearly been snapped off where it meets the ground. The substation's infrastructure was heavily damaged,” the newspaper reported.

The newspaper reported that Moore County Regional Hospital was operating on generator power.

Southern Pines Fire and Rescue reported the town's water and sewer services are also operating on backup generators. Authorities in the area asked people to stay off the roads if possible or proceed with caution because traffic lights were out of service.