Quote:‘Intentional Vandalism’ Leaves 40,000 Without Power in N.C.

Several substations across Moore County were reportedly shot up.

A major power outage in North Carolina that left almost 40,000 people in the dark on Saturday night was caused by “intentional vandalism” at numerous substations, police said.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a statement that the blackout that began just after 7 p.m. was “being investigated as a criminal occurrence.”

Chief Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told the local newspaper, The Pilot, that the substations had been damaged by gunfire.

A reporter from the paper who visited one substation smelled oil leaking from it and saw an access gate snapped off its pole. Workers were scouring the area for bullet casings.

The sheriff did not suggest what the motive might be, but a local conservative activist who organized a protest against a drag show said on Facebook that she was visited by deputies.

“I welcomed them to my home. Sorry they wasted their time,” Emily Grace Rainey wrote.

“I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters. I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”

Two hours earlier, Rainey had posted the message: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” And around the same time, she posted a picture of the Sunrise Theater, which was putting on the sold-out drag show, with the caption “God will not be mocked.”

Several dozen protesters gathered outside the theater Saturday evening, and the show, “Downtown Divas,” a fundraiser for Sandhills Pride, went on under tight security.

It was unclear whether investigators think the vandalism that caused the power outage had any connection to the event.

(12-04-2022, 05:03 PM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote:

Quote:......

Two hours earlier, Rainey had posted the message: “The power is out in Moore County and I know why.” And around the same time, she posted a picture of the Sunrise Theater, which was putting on the sold-out drag show, with the caption “God will not be mocked.”

Quote:22 SOLDIERS AT FORT BRAGG TIED TO EXTREMIST GROUPS (Dec 23, 1995)

Quote:The Calif incident is the one where four guys wearing night vision goggles lit up the cooling tank on a power transformer with AK47s, without hitting any of the surrounding infrastructure, and then disappeared without anyone claiming responsibility or it ever happening again. To date the attack has never been solved... The Metcalf Sniper Attack (check-out that website!)

Quote:Note, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had ordered the imposition of mandatory physical security standards (for substations) in 2014.

Seems the only way to stop it is by posting guards at anything that can be sabotaged, which of course is cost prohibitive.

Despite our so-called high tech surveillance with overly sophisticated algorithms & hive-mind drone swarms, apparently not up to the job compared to armed human guards. Though if someone is hellbent determined to take out a power station/critical infrastructure they will find a way to do it.

Quote:Report shows ‘intrusions’ at Duke Energy power stations in Tampa Bay, elsewhere in Florida

Just days after what officials are calling a “targeted” attack at two Duke Energy substations in North Carolina, NewsNation has obtained federal documents showing evidence of at least six other “intrusions” at Duke Energy substations in Florida.

In September, Duke Energy Florida experienced at least half a dozen “substation intrusion events,” according to an incident report obtained by NewsNation.

On Sept. 21, an intruder “forced entry” into the Zephyrhills North substation in Pasco County, manually tripping equipment that caused an outage lasting nine minutes, according to a report filed with the U.S. Department of Energy.

One day later, someone “forced entry” at Duke’s East Clearwater substation in Pinellas County, again manually tripping equipment that caused an outage lasting two minutes.

The two substations are about 50 miles apart and both incidents took place in the early morning hours between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

The report filed by Duke Energy Florida said the two latest incidents followed four other “similar substation intrusion events,” all of which occurred in the state during the month of September.

Earlier in the month, an intruder entered Duke’s Bay Ridge substation in two separate incidents on Sept. 10 and Sept. 13. The Orange Blossom substation was targeted on Sept.18, as was the Zephyrhills substation on Sept. 21.

Federal law enforcement suspects the people behind the Florida intrusions likely have inside knowledge of the grid and understand how to power down equipment without causing damage, according to a memo obtained by NewsNation.



“The fact that someone has potentially identified a critical substation and then has knowledge of those critical pieces of equipment inside that substation leads me to believe that they’re dealing with people who have inside knowledge,” the memo read.

Duke Energy Florida said it is actively investigating the incidents with law enforcement and has installed video surveillance equipment and posted guards at substations in the area, according to the incident report dated Sept. 22.

Quote:String of electrical grid attacks in Pacific Northwest is unsolved (Dec. 8, 2022)

Emails obtained by OPB and KUOW show that at least six electric substations in the region have been attacked, at least two by people with firearms

The electrical grid has been physically attacked at least four times in Oregon and Western Washington since mid-November, causing growing alarm for law enforcement as well as utilities responsible for parts of the region’s critical infrastructure.

According to information obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, at least two of the incidents bear similarities to the attacks on substations in North Carolina on Saturday that left thousands of people without electricity for days.

Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy have confirmed a total of six separate attacks on electrical substations they manage in Oregon and Washington. Attackers used firearms in at least some of the incidents in both states, and some power customers in Oregon and Washington experienced at least brief service disruption as a result of the attacks.

Quote:White supremacists plotted to attack US electric grid by shooting into power stations, FBI says (Dec 22, 2020)

MINNEAPOLIS — White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be "operational" on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed.

The teen was in a text group with more than a dozen people in the fall of 2019 when he introduced the idea of saving money to buy a ranch where they could participate in militant training, according to the affidavit, which was filed under seal along with a search warrant application in Wisconsin's Eastern U.S. District Court in March. The documents were inadvertently unsealed last week before the mistake was discovered and they were quickly sealed again.

The teenager wanted the group to be "operational" by the 2024 election because he believed it was likely a Democrat would win, but "the timeline for being operational would accelerate if President Trump lost the 2020 election," according to the affidavit.

An informant told investigators that the teen "definitely wanted to be operational for violence, but also activism." 

The Ohio teen, who was 17 at the time, also shared plans with a smaller group about a plot to create a power outage by shooting rifle rounds into power stations in the southeastern U.S. The teen called the plot "Light's Out" and there were plans to carry it out in the summer of 2021, the affidavit states.
...
This investigation apparently began after a fourth man, from Canada, was stopped while trying to enter the U.S. The man told border agents that he was going to visit the Ohio teen, whom he had recently met over an encrypted app, according to the affidavit. Agents found Nazi and white supremacist images on his phone. 

Quote:EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Xcel Energy has acknowledged to 11 News sister station CBS4 that it is aware of an alleged plot to disable the nation’s power grid, which included a possible attack on an El Paso County substation.

The FBI is investigating a neo-Nazi group that is believed to have been planning an attack on the United States power grid. The plot was being called “Lights Out.” One of the structures targeted that is mentioned in the details of the investigation is outside of Colorado Springs. It’s called “Midway” and it is operated by Xcel.

KKTV CBS Denver (Dec 23, 2020)

(12-08-2022, 08:41 AM)Ninurta Wrote: Either standoff shooting at the substation itself or taking out transmission lines and towers will end the party, and ... simply vanish like a puff of smoke and keep their yaps shut.

... can ruin your whole day if they take out several substations at once, ... and then just vanish into the aether.

Quote:Group With Ties to Racially Motivated Violent Extremists Including two Former Marines Facing Additional Charge of Targeting Energy Facilities (Aug 20, 2021)

RALEIGH, N.C. – Today, Paul James Kryscuk, 35, Liam Collins, 21, Jordan Duncan, 26, and Joseph Maurino, 22, were charged via a third superseding indictment obtained in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Collins and Duncan are former Marines assigned previously to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  The defendants are charged with conspiracy to damage the property of an energy facility in the United States.

According to the indictment, Collins, Kryscuk, Duncan, and Maurino researched, discussed, and reviewed at length a previous attack on the power grid by an unknown group.  The group in that attack used assault-style rifles in an attempt to explode a power substation. Between 2017 and 2020, Kryscuk manufactured firearms while Collins stole military gear, including magazines for assault-style rifles and had them delivered to the other defendants.  During that time, Duncan gathered a library of information, some military-owned, regarding firearms, explosives, and nerve toxins and shared that information with Kryscuk and Collins.

The indictment also alleges that the defendants discussed using homemade Thermite, a combination of metal powder and metal oxide which burns at over 4000°F to burn through and destroy power transformers.  In mid-2020, Collins asked others to each purchase 50 pounds of Tannerite, a binary explosive containing aluminum powder and oxidizers, and can be used to make Thermite.  In October 2020, a handwritten list of approximately one dozen intersections and places in Idaho and surrounding states was discovered in Kryscuk’s possession, including intersections and/or places containing a transformer, substations, or other component of the power grid for the northwest United States.  If destroyed, the damage caused could exceed $100,000.

The defendants have also been charged, in previous indictments, with conspiring to manufacture, transport, and sell hard to obtain firearms and firearm parts in a manner that would hide these purchases from the federal government.