Moore County, in the Sandhills region of central North Carolina, is mainly known for its golf courses, especially Pinehurst No. 2. The county is also home to thousands of active-duty soldiers (many of whom are Special Forces) stationed nearby at Fort Bragg, the home of the US Army Special Operations Command and the 82nd Airborne, making the rural county’s infrastructure an attractive target.

Saturday night that infrastructure was attacked when numerous power substations throughout the county were targets of what the Moore County Sheriff labeled “intentional vandalism,” leaving more than 40,000 people without power.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields reported on Facebook that the mass power outage across the county is being investigated as a criminal occurrence.

Just after 7 pm on Saturday evening, December 3, 2022, several different communities across Moore County began experiencing power outages.

As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites.

Moore County Sheriff’s Deputies and various other law enforcement agencies within the county responded to the different areas and are providing further site security.

Anyone with any information about this act of violence should contact the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at 910-947-2931.

While that was ongoing, a local TV station found a large police presence at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Aberdeen, near Southern Pines. There were unconfirmed reports of looting there and at a local gun store, and law enforcement informed the crew to leave and that it wasn’t safe there.

Liberal writer Charlotte Clymer blamed conservatives, though, claiming that the power outage occurred after three substations were “shot up with firearms simultaneously to cut power to a drag show” simply because one local woman said she “knew why” power was out, then followed that up with, “God will not be mocked.”

Tonight, there are unconfirmed reports coming out of Moore County, NC of three substations being shot up with firearms simultaneously to cut power to a drag show. Reportedly, nearly 40,000 people in Moore County are currently without power.

— [email protected] (@cmclymer) December 4, 2022

In a follow-up post, Rainey tagged Sunrise Theater, where the drag show was being held, and wrote “God will not be mocked” above what appears to be a photo of the building tonight during the power outage. pic.twitter.com/wqsbmmo0t3

— [email protected] (@cmclymer) December 4, 2022

Someone reported those posts to authorities believing that Rainey could actually be behind the coordinated attack, and Rainey’s home was visited by law enforcement — but Rainey clarified that she merely meant that God “works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage.”

Here’s Rainey’s update on being visited by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office after her post referencing the attack. pic.twitter.com/eoqrBYMfDp

— [email protected] (@cmclymer) December 4, 2022

At the time of publication, there is no indication as to who committed the attack and the motivation behind it.

(An update to this story can be found here.)