Power outage in NC being treated as "criminal occurence"

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MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
8,960
8,195
136
Just looked at the Duke outage map. It is showing the estimated time of restoration as 12/8/22 @11:45AM
 

kitkat22

Golden Member
Feb 10, 2005
1,464
1,331
136
It will be interesting to see what transpires with a motive. I also had a chance to look at the map. That is quite a large swath of power outage that affected everything from the sewer to city lights through the region. There were apparently several car accidents and this would also affect the regional hospital as well. They would have back up, but would have to resort to down-time procedures to address care. Part of me is hopeful this was a stupid drunk game, but at the same time, it would not surprise if there was malicious intent. Maybe it was the drag show - maybe not. Either way, I hope they are brought to justice.
 
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Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
12,284
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It will be interesting to see what transpires with a motive. I also had a chance to look at the map. That is quite a large swath of power outage that affected everything from the sewer to city lights through the region. There were apparently several car accidents and this would also affect the regional hospital as well. They would have back up, but would have to resort to down-time procedures to address care. Part of me is hopeful this was a stupid drunk game, but at the same time, it would not surprise if there was malicious intent. Maybe it was the drag show - maybe not. Either way, I hope they are brought to justice.

The almost immediate social media "response" is what makes it hard to ignore. You had the 1-6 participant stating she knew what was going on, and the TX nutjob attempting to delete her supporting post/hashtag after the fact. The county sheriff already visited the first woman, I'd expect she will also meet some FBI folks shortly (if she hasn't already).
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,347
2,709
136
It will be interesting to see what transpires with a motive. I also had a chance to look at the map. That is quite a large swath of power outage that affected everything from the sewer to city lights through the region. There were apparently several car accidents and this would also affect the regional hospital as well. They would have back up, but would have to resort to down-time procedures to address care. Part of me is hopeful this was a stupid drunk game, but at the same time, it would not surprise if there was malicious intent. Maybe it was the drag show - maybe not. Either way, I hope they are brought to justice.
I could buy the 'drunken game' if it was one power station but with multiple stations involved it seems unlikely to me.
 

Dave_5k

Golden Member
May 23, 2017
1,894
3,628
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A sustained campaign of successful strikes on the power gird could be quite devastating.
We have the supplies to replace a certain amount... after that.... it would be an emergency effort to produce more AND keep them from being damaged all the same.

What surprises me is simple gunfire achieved the trick. I always imagined RPGs or IEDs (drones) would be required. Maybe a small artillery. That small arms fire did it was quite the shocker. But in retrospect I shouldn't be surprised. Seems the barrier to entry for this sort of attack is VERY low. We may need to encase our substations in protective buildings.
High voltage transformers aren't specifically hardened against gunfire, and if you know what to target (or just shoot everything!) not that hard to break, particularly easy to take out the coolant tank. And nobody in the US has a very large spare supply of these utility transformers - with manufacturing lead times for new delivery measured in months or years, not days.

Russia blowing up dozens of these in Ukraine hasn't helped the global inventory at all either.

Although I believe these particular units that got shot up were not the largest 345kv units (as they weren't on critical infrastructure list), so not quite as bad. Just one transformer/substation could almost certainly have been worked around with minimal brief power outages - if these domestic terrorists hadn't targeted multiple substations.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,082
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I think I scrolled through a headline where the area is now calling this a state of emergency.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,859
4,976
126
What do

Milton Berle
Flip Wilson
Tom Hanks
Tyler Perry
Dustin Hoffman
Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo

Have in common?

Actors in drag that were either popular or nobody complained. Now all of a sudden there is feigned outrage

Guilliani too!
 
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sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
11,492
3,161
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It will be interesting to see what transpires with a motive.

Probably just a bunch of disillusioned Q's having been told on BitChute that pulling this stunt would take out the entire power grid nationwide.
That's kinda how they operate.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,636
8,522
136
Looks more like practice for an insurection to me.

That sounds possible to me. An experiment by a bunch of wanna-be insurrectionists? Not necessarily a sign of 'the real thing' to come, but maybe a morale-boosting side-project by some gang who want to believe that's the case?

My more inappropriately fascetious thought is maybe Hans Gruber was trying to break into another of those electromagnetically sealed vaults?
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,082
21,203
136
Those rednecks shooting those substations were just out of targets for shooting practice. The fact they took out the power to an entire county is just a perception of bad behavior.
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
14,221
4,452
136
I could buy the 'drunken game' if it was one power station but with multiple stations involved it seems unlikely to me.
I agree. Just the fact that they knew where multiple substations were speaks of planning. I mean, who knows where all their local power substations are located? They had to plan it out beforehand get to all of them before the authorities caught on that someone was taking out substations.
 

MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
8,960
8,195
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Duke outage map show that they have everyone's power back on. Now to throw out all the food from the refrigerators and freezers.
 
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Pohemi

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
9,456
12,990
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I can guarantee it isn't teenagers or "leftists" doing this. And these aren't 'pranks'. They're endangering people's lives and livelihoods doing this kind of shit, not to mention the damages caused to the equipment and machinery.