"Targeted attack" leaves 40,000 people w/o power in North Carolina

Police seemed to have found a person of interest. And the motivation might have something to do with...drag queens? Really? Fuck, MAGA, ya'll are insane.

TEXT:

An alleged attack on multiple electrical substations left 60 percent of North Carolina's Moore County without power over the weekend in what local and state authorities are investigating as a "criminal occurrence."

What's happening: About 45,000 homes and businesses in Moore County, about 70 miles southwest of Raleigh, were plunged into darkness on Saturday night, the Moore County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Around 35,000 homes remained without power Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that aggregates data from utilities.
At a press conference Sunday evening, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said that the substations had been shot at by gunfire in a "targeted" attack and that his office was working with the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation to find the cause of the attack.
In response, the county declared a state of emergency, issued a curfew at 9 pm Sunday and closed county schools on Monday.

Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said multiple pieces of equipment were damaged and need significant repair.

Power outages could extend potentially until Thursday, the utility estimated.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Sunday tweeted that he had "spoken with Duke Energy and state law enforcement officials" about the incident and that the state was "providing support as needed."

Between the lines: The power went out during a drag show in downtown Southern Pines that attracted a significant amount of protesters and police presence.

The show ended early because of the power outages, The Pilot reported.

One of the leading protesters, Emily Grace Rainey, claimed on social media that sheriff's deputies questioned her about the outages after she posted that she knew why it had occurred, WRAL reported Sunday morning.

"I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage," Rainey, who rose to local prominence protesting COVID-19 restrictions, wrote on Facebook. "I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters."

In 2021, Rainey also resigned from her position as a psychological operations officer in the Army, after the Army investigated her for leading a group of people from Moore County to the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, CBS News previously reported.

Fields said his office was looking into a possible connection to the drag show but added it had "not been able to tie anything back to the drag show."

"We had to go interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her, but it turned out to be nothing," he said in a reference to Rainey's Facebook post.

https://www.axios.com/2022/12/04/north-carolina-power-outages-criminal-investigation