CARTHAGE, N.C. (WNCN) — Pete’s Family Restaurant couldn’t cook up any smothered porkchops for four days in December.
The Moore County eatery was left in the dark along with more than 45,000 other Duke Energy customers on Dec. 3.
“It was a disaster, you know. People got upset,” Pete Kajouras, owner of the restaurant, said.
Someone attacked two Duke Energy substations in Moore County with gunfire. It knocked out power for the majority of Moore County.
“We are trying to uncover any and all leads,” Moore County Sheriff Chief Deputy Richard Maness said.
Still, sheriff’s investigators have no idea who did it.
“We are taking every lead seriously and continue to dedicate a lot of manpower to this issue. We are very determined,” Maness said.
On Tuesday, someone fired at a Energy United substation in Randolph County. However, the power stayed on.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s Office released the following statement:
“While the Governor is grateful there were no power outages any attack on infrastructure is a serious crime and needs full investigation. Similar attacks nationwide show the importance of smart investments to make the energy grid and its systems resilient and capable of recovering quickly from any damage.”
“Our guys continue to work day in and day out very diligently,” Chief Deputy Maness said.
Officers are patrolling around substations across the state more frequently. Power companies told CBS 17 they can’t reveal their security measures. Although they are on alert and are stepping up security.
In Fayetteville, PWC sent us this statement,
“PWC exceeds the national compliance requirements established by the North American Reliability Corporation and the Southeast Electric Reliability Corporation for electric system security. In light of the recent incidents, we have increased monitoring, reviewed our security procedures, and worked with local authorities to maintain security to protect our system and ensure delivery of services to our customers.”
The attacks in both Moore and Randolph counties remain under investigation.
