‘ONGOING INVESTIGATION’

Another North Carolina Substation Was Attacked Weeks Before Moore County Blackout

On Nov. 11, vandals assaulted a power station in Carteret County, causing upwards of $500,000 worth of damage.

Another North Carolina power substation was attacked just weeks before the targeted assault on Moore County’s energy infrastructure that left some 45,000 residents without electricity. On Nov. 11, Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative suffered more than $500,000 worth of damage to one of their substations in Maysville, damaging transformers and causing them to leak coolant oil, according to a statement by the company that called the attack a “serious criminal act.” It’s unclear how the vandals attacked the plant but it caused a brief blackout for some 12,000 customers in Carteret County, about 150 miles east of Moore County. “Right now, because it’s an ongoing investigation, and because it’s separate from everything that’s going on in Moore County, we are going to withhold comment until we have more information,” company spokeswoman Melissa Glenn said on Thursday, according to The News & Observer. “And we will share that whenever we are given the go-ahead from the authorities to do so.”