Nearly 35,000 in North Carolina still without power after weekend shooting

Nearly 35,000 Moore County, North Carolina residents are still without power after vandals used firearms to take out two substations on Sunday.

The incident is being investigated by federal, local and state agencies, and many leaders are declaring it a deliberate attack.

Some infrastructure was attacked, said Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. It appears to have been deliberate. Mayorkas gave a keynote address on Monday afternoon at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he spoke about cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure and the convergence of National Security and Homeland Security.

After giving a speech about how the roles of both agencies overlap and become blurred, Vivian Salama asked the secretary several questions, including one on recent attacks on infrastructure.

Mayorkas acknowledged the attack on the power grid and provided an update on the investigation.

He said that he is working with energy companies and local communities to address the situation, impacting the power that reaches homes in the targeted neighborhoods. This is one where the investigators, federal and local, are working hand-in-hand with the remediators, the private sector, and the local communities to bring a wholistic array of tools to address the situation, to learn from it, to communicate to others so that we can become more resilient and prevent the next one from happening. BOLD-FACED LIE On Monday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper met with local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as Duke Energy officials in Moore County to discuss the power outage.

An attack on critical infrastructure is a serious, intentional crime and I expect state and federal authorities to thoroughly investigate and bring those responsible to justice, Gov. Cooper made a statement on Sunday on Twitter.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said on Sunday that extensive damage was found at two substations, caused by multiple gunshots. Over 45,000 customers were without electricity as a result of power outages throughout the county.

On Monday, 34,359 customers were still without power, according to poweroutage.us.

Duke Electric said power may not be restored completely until Thursday.

Rumors surrounding the substation attacks made the rounds online, suggesting that they were taken out as an effort to stop a drag show taking place in Moore County.

One person of interest turned to social media and said she knew how the power outage occurred. Fields said on Sunday that the person was interviewed by law enforcement officials, and the information she provided was debunked.