FBI join investigation into North Carolina power outage as sheriff addresses drag show connection rumours

The FBI has joined the search for a person or group that may have intentionally disabled a substation in North Carolina, leaving around 40,000 residents without power for hours.

According to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, utility crews responding to a power outage on Saturday night discovered signs of potential vandalism, including two substations damaged by gunfire.

The Moore County Sheriff’s Office — now along with the FBI — is searching for the culprits, CNN reports.

"The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing," Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said on Sunday. "We don’t have a clue why Moore County."

Mr Fields said the attacks were "targeted" and "not random," noting that multiple rounds were fired at each station.

According to the sheriff, no individual or organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack. His office did follow up on a rumor circulating on social media that the attack on the substations was an attempt to disrupt drag shows in the county.

WRAL reports that a former US Army psychological operations officer from North Carolina named Emily Grace Rainey posted cryptic messages on social media suggesting she had information behind the attack, claiming "the power is out in Moore County and I know why."

Ms Rainey was at the Capitol on 6 January, 2021 to protest the election, though she was not charged with any crimes relating to the events of that day. Shortly after the power went out, she shared an image of an area theater that was hosting a drag show, along with the caption "Sunrise Theater God will not be mocked."

Mr Fields told reporters during a press conference that they met Ms Rainey at her home and asked her about the attacks, during which she claims she told them that "God works in mysterious ways," and complained about the "immoral drag show" and the "blasphemies screamed by its supporters."

In another post she claimed that “because of lukewarm Christians and public displays of blasphemy and immorality in Moore County many innocent people are suffering.”

Ultimately, law enforcement found she was lacking any credible information.

"We had to go interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her. But it turned out to be false," he told the reporters.

The sheriff said no evidence has been found to "tie anything back to the drag show."

After the power went out, area law enforcement enacted a curfew between the hours of 9pm and 5am to protect residents and businesses affected by the blackout.

On Monday afternoon there were still more than 33,000 Duke Energy customers waiting for crews to restore their power.

"Duke Energy is pursuing multiple repair paths to restore as many customers as possible, as quickly and safely as possible," Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s general manager for Emergency Preparedness said in a press statement. "This is a significant local outage that is affecting nearly all customers in Moore County. While some customers will be restored sooner, most customers should be prepared for an extended outage that could last until Thursday.”