According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, vandalism occurred early Sunday morning at three substations in western Washington, initially cutting power to about 14,000 utility customers. Authorities are investigating whether the attacks were related. (December 26th)
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power back on Thousands of homes were left in the dark after four substations in western Washington were destroyed on Christmas Day.
According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday’s attack knocked out more than 14,000 utility customers in southern Pierce County near Tacoma.
Robberies were reported at two substations belonging to Tacoma Public Utilities and two substations belonging to Puget Sound Energy.
Lawmakers confirmed forced entry into fenced areas at all four substations. The equipment was destroyed, but “nothing was stolen” from the substation, the agency said.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office said: “At this time, agents are conducting an initial investigation. No suspects have been detained. Was there a motive or was it a coordinated attack on the power system? It is unclear whether the
All affected Tacoma Utility customers had power restored by Monday afternoon after the utility deployed. mobile substation In the last hours of restoration, said on TwitterPuget Sound Energy has also restored power to all customers affected by the substation damage, spokesperson Gerald Tracy told USA TODAY Tuesday morning.
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Authorities have not disclosed what kind of vandalism was involved, but a fire has been reported at one of the substations belonging to Puget Sound Energy and Tacoma Utilities, and is being referred to as damage.”Intentional” on Twitter.
Tacoma Public Utilities was warned earlier this month by federal officials about a “security alert” on its electrical grid, the utility said in a statement.
4 attacks follow other attacks Warnings and advisories from federal officials regarding possible domestic terrorist attacks on the U.S. power grid. Similar attacks have been reported in Washington, Oregon, and North Carolina since November.
A massive power outage that began on December 3 in North Carolina left tens of thousands of people without power and took days to restore. Officials called the outage a “targeted” attack.
Days before the incident, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through its National Terrorism Advisory System, issued a bulletin warning that “single criminals and small groups” could strike a variety of targets, including critical infrastructure. has been issued.
In January, the DHS warned that militants in the country had “credible and concrete plans” to attack power infrastructure from at least 2020 onwards.
Oregon Public Broadcasting and Seattle’s KUOW-FM reported earlier this month that a number of power companies had reported six attacks on substations in Washington and Oregon in the past few weeks.
Contributed by Associated Press