Power outage continues in N Carolina county, thousands without electricity in freezing temperature as schools remain closed

North Carolina's Moore County remains without electricity in freezing temperature as power outage caused by what authorities describe as an act of vandalism continues unabated.

Local officials declared a curfew on Sunday while investigating vandals' knocking out of two power substations that has plunged tens of thousands of households into darkness.

The power outage first started on Saturday after the perpetrators opened fire at the substations serving the county. In response, local officials announced a state of emergency that included a curfew from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday, and told the locals that restoration of the situation to normal could take up to days.

"An attack like this on critical infrastructure is a serious, intentional crime, and I expect state and federal authorities to thoroughly investigate and bring those responsible to justice," Governor Roy Cooper wrote on Twitter.

He added, "Protecting critical infrastructure like our power system must be a top priority. This kind of attack raises a new level of threat."

• Power outages in North Carolina caused by gunfire in ‘malicious’ attack

Authorities are keeping details of the investigation close to the vest, saying only that the damage was done by firearms. 

"No group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they're the ones that [have] done it," Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields told reporters on Sunday, adding, however, that the saboteur "knew exactly what they were doing to cause the damage and cause the outage that they did."

With cold temperatures forecast for coming days, the county also opened a shelter at a sports complex in Carthage.

Duke Energy's spokesman Jeff Brooks said it could take the company "as long as Thursday" to restore the facilities.

" As a reminder, we had about 45,000 customers that were impacted by this incident here in Moore County on Saturday evening. We have worked to make some progress as our repairs continue. We were able to restore about 7,000 customers last night as we completed some repairs on some of the equipment that was damaged. That work continues and we have some repair passed ... but we could still see this extend Wednesday into Thursday, somewhere in that timeframe," he added.

Schools in Moore County will be closed for a second day on Tuesday and 38,000 households are still without power amid freezing nighttime temperatures.

Federal agencies including the FBI and the US Department of Energy are investigating the shootings, along with local and state law enforcement. So far, none have suggested a motive and no arrests have been announced.

The county of approximately 100,000 people lies about an hour's drive southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina's capital.

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