
The attack on electrical substations in Moore County that have left more than 40,000 people without power is having an effect on Sanford today — restaurants and grocery stores in Tramway and throughout the city are slammed, generators have sold out at Lowe’s Home Improvement, and local hotels are booked.
The Moore County Sheriff’s Office reported that just after 7 p.m. Saturday, several communities in Moore County lost power. As utility companies began responding to different substations, they discovered “evidence that indicated vandalism” at multiple sites. According to the Southern Pines Pilot, which has been updating its story continuously since last night, the FBI has become involved in the investigation
While the official stance of the sheriff’s office and the office of U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson is that the motive of the vandalism is “unknown,” many on social media are connecting it to a drag show scheduled for Saturday night in downtown Southern Pines. Organizers of the event at Sunrise Theater said far-right activists have been trying to shut down their event “for weeks.”

Cameron resident Emily Rainey, pictured above taking a selfie with a group of protesters and “Proud Boys” outside of a similar drag show event in downtown Sanford in October, was questioned by deputies (according to a post on Facebook) for her alleged involvement or knowledge of the outages. Prior to the outages, she posted a photo of Sunrise Theater on her Facebook page with the caption, “God will not be mocked.” Following the outages, she wrote in a message that has since been deleted, “The power is out in Moore County, and I know why.”
“Sorry they wasted their time,” she later wrote. “I told [deputies] that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters. God is chastising Moore County. I thanked them for coming and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”
As for the outages, the effects locally will be felt for at least the next 24 to 48 hours, according to a Facebook post from the Town of Southern Pines. The town has opened a community center for the public to stay warm and charge electric devices. Otherwise, residents have been asked to stay off the roads as traffic lights are not working (multiple vehicle accidents have been reported).
Several church services in Moore County were also canceled Sunday morning.
The Moore County Sheriff’s Office has scheduled a press conference for 4 p.m. today to provide updates on the power outage and the criminal investigation.
Domestic Terrorist supported by most if not all elected Republicans who will make one excuse after another to minimize local citizens being terrorized by radicals walking amongst us.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/2-men-charged-attacks-4-pierce-county-utility-substations/GPL4RPGKFBGZBGSWPZU37WKGO4/
Dear Rant NC,
Next time you publish a photo of full of people gesturing with a very specific hand signal that, very specifically, means “White Power” please include that fact in the photo’s caption. I’m sure it just slipped your mind this time.
Love, your readers who aren’t white supremacists
The meaning of that particular symbol is kind of nebulous according to this article:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/09/18/ok-sign-white-power-symbol-or-just-right-wing-troll
That hand symbol is kind of just them being jerks.
What a “Christian” thing to do: attack your own community because you’re threatened by a guy I’m a skirt. I hope the FBI gets every single one of these people and locks them up for terrorism.
🤔 I was thinking, what a “Christian” thing to do…have drag shows that just LOVE to involve small children. Quite frankly, how does ANYONE know The who, what, where, and how? Intelligent people don’t cut their own power. Idiots, maybe.
What part of “Must Be 18 Years Old to Attend” on the show’s flyers did you not understand, Karen?
These type things are only going to get worse until these local and larger terrorist groups like the proud boys are no more. Since January 6 they have been bold and their action continue to escalate. The communities in Moore County will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because of this not to mention people that need power to run medical equipment at home and hourly employees that will be out of work while their employer waits for power to be restored and it could’ve been worse? How long until the violence is turned on people? Instead of power stations shot the theater or venues hosting events these crazy fanatics don’t agree with get shot up. I’m exhausted from these stories and ready to see these groups answer for the harm they cause.
I hope that who ever was responsible for this, Proud Boys, Antifa or eco terrorists, are caught and punished. Can’t say who was behind it. Colorado had an incident attacking a gay club and killing 5 people and wounding 17. It was widely reported, with certainty, that it was a right winger. Then it ended up it was one of their own with a personal beef. He goes by “them/they” (SMH) and got caught.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/2-men-charged-attacks-4-pierce-county-utility-substations/GPL4RPGKFBGZBGSWPZU37WKGO4/
Hmmmmm? the stories are usually about BLM and ANTIFA, Conservatives don’t support this kind of violence and damage to infrastructure, but on the other hand Leftists certainly do! So go figure, more fake news me thinks!
Trumpaloon says what?
Likely a QAnut, EnergyDonk…I mean they specifically chose the 17th letter of the alphabet as their handle for some reason.
And I’m aware Trumpanzees and QAnuts go hand in hand. Crazy loves crazy.
We need to live in peace with each other… This shows how easy we can make each others lives hard..A road map for our real enemy.
And who is our “real enemy” Michael? Because it seems to me our “real enemy” is the Proud Boys who are harassing people in our towns and shooting up our power stations.
Sounds like eco terrorists.
“The four Pacific north-west utilities whose equipment was attacked have said they are cooperating with the FBI. The agency has not yet confirmed if it is investigating the incidents.
It’s unknown who is behind the attacks but experts have long warned of discussion among extremists of disrupting the nation’s power grid.”
https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/2-men-charged-attacks-4-pierce-county-utility-substations/GPL4RPGKFBGZBGSWPZU37WKGO4/
These outages could last well into the following weekend.. Hope the Loud Babies are real proud of themselves. Ef’n dumbasses.
Interesting how everyone assumes this is the result of a bunch of right wing extremists (Terrorists). At this point there has been no arrests, no motive, in fact no factual evidence that has anything to do with Proud Boys, right wing extremists, Qanon nuts or anything else. Everything you all are saying on both sides of this issue is all based on here-say, rumors, assumptions, gossip, and blatant political and social bias. Here is a thought, The Rant included, why don’t we all just let the Law enforcement do their jobs, find out what the hell is going on, find the perpetrators, and arrest them. In the grand scheme of things over the last 5 years, the damaged caused by whoever did this, even if it is politically or socially motivated is small potatoes compared to the billions lost in damage from BLM and ANTIFA Riots. Let’s not forget the hundreds that have been killed and injured as well. So let’s all just relax and see what really has happened and who did it. Because God forbid this actually ends up being another situation where it was a violent act perpetrated by liberals to try and make it look like some right wing conservative group did this. If that is the case, NONE of you will retract a single word you have said.
D.Roberts. Unfortunately your wasting your breath trying to be the voice of sanity or reason here. These “individuals” do not have any sense whatsoever. In today’s “society” (and I use that term extremely loosely) people believe what they read on social media or hear from Gus the garbage man….because he is in the know. They jump to conclusions because it’s what THEY want to be the truth, regardless if it is or not it was on Facebook so therefore it’s fact at least in their heads.
No one knows or has a clue what actually happened, or who actually did this. That’s a fact that has been reported by several news outlets (both right and left leaning.) They questioned one person who claimed to have knowledge of this incident but in my personal opinion, this person is just someone looking for attention and is not playing with a full deck, which is why they chose to “resign” their commission due to their political affiliation.
LEO’s have no proof it was the work of Proud Boys, QAnon individuals, the Clan, BLM, Antifa or Tony the Tiger (for those of you don’t know who that is look at the box of Frosted Flakes your parents keep in the house) They are currently clueless as to who or why this was done. Speculation of course has been reported, but no facts have been proven. And your correct, if these people are proven incorrect in their assumptions, they will not retract a single word, or issue an apology. You know that in this era of “wokeness” you can tell a person they are wrong, their words are wrong, their lifestyle is wrong (tradition man/woman marriage, going to Church because YOU want to go, family values, respect for people and allowing them to live their life without fear), but do not ever say the liberals are wrong, because if you do, you are forcing your beliefs on them, infringing on their rights, or they will accuse you of being a “trumpateer” (kinda like that term, gonna use it more often) You cannot disagree with these people because the very second you do, they whine and cry and complain how unfair they are being treated. And for love of all that’s Holy don’t use the term ” pull up your bootstraps”, that will trigger these babies more than anything else.
A Proud Boys sympathizer confessed on Facebook. The fact that she is too much of a coward to stand by her confession when faced with the consequences doesn’t mean she and her Proud Boys friends didn’t do it. It just means it’s going to take the FBI a little longer to mail them for it.
She did not confess on Facebook. And if your over the age of 21, get off Facebook, and for the love of God, don’t get your news from social media please, it makes you look like a complete incompetent moron.
If you read the story, she claimed she knew why the power was out. She did not say she was involved in it, nor was she affiliated with it going out. She never claimed it was the work of the Proud Boys, or that the Proud Boys were responsible for it. That “rumor” going around is something that was started by a person, who needs additional attention in their life and want’s to be the person who “cracks the case wide open.” Great job Matlock! It’s called speculation for reason, because the public likes to give face to something they already dislike, and dislike them even more, and then accuse them of all the wrong doings in the world.
Spoke to someone with a spouse that works in Civil Affairs at Bragg that speculates whomever did this has a military background.
Or maybe it was some teenage boys out drinking and doing stupid stuff. Again nothing but here-say, speculation, and conjecture. No evidence this has anything to do with anything. Who cares what the spouse of some chucklehead civil affairs POG at Bragg speculates about what happened. Let the police do their jobs and everyone stop trying to attach political or social bias to a situation that NOBODY knows more than what happened and where it happened. NOBODY knows who or why it happened.
Wow. This POG was not always in Civil Affairs by the way. Fifteen year active vet. Also I said “speculates” in my comment. Don’t get your panties in a wad.
They also seem to have an understanding of the small parts that are difficult to replace in a substation.
I believe randomly shooting up a substation was an actual mission in CoD: Modern Warfare 3. That supports Roberts’ drunk teenager angle.
For all of you screaming that right wing nut jobs did this. Read the official statement as of right now. So just stop with all of the stupidity until we know what has actually gone on.
BTW: The Rant, you are just as culpable for fomenting this nonsense. Your article if filled with political and social bias. You are professional journalists and should hold yourselves to higher standards than this.
4:20 p.m. Sunday:
Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said investigators have found no evidence or reason to believe that the Saturday evening attack was tied to a controversial drag show in downtown Southern Pines. The power went out during the Downtown Divas show at the Sunrise Theater about an hour into the show. Prior to the show, a number of protesters and counter protesters had demonstrated out in front of the theater.
Let’s add one more conspiracy theory. Why Southern Pines? Isn’t the home of PGA golf? LIV golf and the PGA are at odds with each other. LIV golf is backed by Saudi Arabia. A terrorist country known for human rights violations. So let’s throw them into the mix. After all everything now is conjecture.
Hmmm, it is just as viable as every other theory being thrown around at the moment.
it will be interesting to see if Emily Rainey has a liable or defamation case against The Rant. Literally thousands of people have made posts and comments on social media about the power outage and what they think happened. The Rant chose to target her because she has been outspoken on the subject of Drag shows in the area. The Rant has been very strategic in their wording as all journalists are. But if you look at their post on FaceBook, you will see that because of this story and how it is worded, people are blaming her and wishing some pretty bad things to happen to her. If something happens to her in the near future, it won’t take a very experience lawyer to put the blame squarely on the liberal and biased reporting on a person the police have already ruled out. If I was The Rant, I would be calling my Lawyer to find out if there is any liability or defamation that can come our way, especially if harm comes to her after this. Then again, I wouldn’t have even mentioned her in the article because she is completely irrelevant to the case and it is clearly an attempt by The Rant to damage her reputation further. Get read Rant, you may have crossed a line. You may want to write a retraction or a clarification stating that as of right now she has no involvement in this case and you don’t condone any potential violence towards her, because People are making threats and it is because of your reporting.
Seems pretty unlikely they have anything to worry about. To prove libel you generally have to prove that A- the statement is false (It isn’t. They reported what she posted), B- you know that it’s false (Again, it isn’t), and C- it harmed them.
Just because people take a true statement and act illegally on it, that does not make the person who made the statement in any legal trouble.
If it’s any consolation, she is protected by the same laws you think will not protect The Rant. She can say anything she wants about people she does not like and as long as she does not overtly incite violence against them, she cannot be sued or prosecuted. You really have to screw up big time to run afoul of these laws, which is why facebook and twitter have so many keyboard commandos talking big about how they are gonna do whatever it is they think they are gonna do against their enemies.
Again though, you need to demonstrate the falsehood in their reporting, because without it I doubt any lawyer will bother taking this “case”, unless they get paid up front for what will be an entirely futile gesture that will bring great pleasure to her opponents and little else.
But everyone has a purpose, even if it’s to be a bad example from which we can all learn; when a crime has been committed it is probably considered unwise by 9 out of 10 legal scholars to claim you know anything about it, assuming that is not the case.
Mr. Roberts, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
D. Roberts – Maybe Ms. Rainey has learned a lesson that taking selfies with known domestic terrorist groups, and making posts on social media, claiming to know why the power was out, is a poor life decision.
The Rant has nothing to fear. They reported facts. She did what they claimed she did and said what they claimed she said. You may not like the facts, but it is what it is.
Your history tells us that had there been a conservative klan meeting going on at the time, you would be at the head of the line spreading rumors of a link to antifa or BLM.
Sit your Q-anut self down.
Roberts loves to echo the same lunacy as their dear orange emporer..
“Most of the violence, Jones said, was committed by “local hooligans, sometimes gangs, sometimes just individuals that are trying to take advantage of an opportunity.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/22/who-caused-violence-protests-its-not-antifa/
This woman is a disgraced ex-military known terrorist and insurrectionist who publicizes images of herself posing with known terrorist organizations who free posted a public confession — a winking confession with just enough wiggle room that she thinks she can deny it after the fact, but a confession nonetheless — so no, The Rant is not smearing anybody. She is smearing herself.
Let’s look at what we do know.
Less than 24 hours after the act of domestic terrorism took place, the FBI was involved in the investigation.
Last week the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that public power grids may soon be a target of terrorism.
On Jan 6th 2021 A certain person named Emily from Carthage, led a group of over 100 people to protest the certification of President Joe Biden.
This same person was active duty military. She was investigated by the Army. and resigned her commission.
She has publicly supported the Proud Boys who seem to be fixated on drag shows right now.
She posted on social media in protest of the drag show.
When the power went out during the show, she again posted on social media that she knew why.
Those are the facts. Now what you need to consider.
It is safe to assume that the FBI and Homeland Security have had all known members of the Proud Boys and people who took part in the Jan 6th protests under investigation. I’m sure there is not a single email or phone conversation that has not been recorded. All social media has been monitored as well. I suspect the FBI was on it so fast because of potential chatter. Domestic terrorism is real, and our government is trying it’s best to keep us safe.
You’re an idiot! The FBI is currently nothing more than a tool of the looney left so it only makes sense that they would be used to perpetuate the agenda/perception. Funny how the phrase “domestic terrorism” is only used when the left is referencing ANY actions by the right,,,,,ANY! We are at war alright with you communist P’sOS!!!!!
So the attacks were done by Right wing agents? So you must know who it was who did it. Would you care to share with the rest of the class?
What’s that matter Adolph? Worried about a visit from the FBI? Even if they were a “tool of the looney left”, they’d still have to have evidence and a reason to investigate you. Only people who break the law should be worried about the FBI. They are not investigating and pulling people off the streets and handcuffing them for giving to charity or something.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that you think it was done by right-wingers. Note that I did not make that accusation. I mean, yeah, facts are pointing that direction, but nothing is confirmed yet.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines domestic terrorism as violent, criminal acts which are committed by individuals and/or groups in order to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
This seems to fit the definition of Domestic Terrorism if it is related to drag show. Again, nothing confirmed publicly yet, just facts pointing in that direction.
Define ACTUAL, REAL “communism” for the rest of us. Bet you can’t, you backwoods dumbass.
Shocker..
https://twitter.com/SilentSamIAm/status/1599765823903539200
And just like that, nobody is talking about this any more. No evidence of any Right wing terrorists so this is no longer a priority story. Move along, nothing to see here.
Oh, it’s still a pretty safe bet to think this was done by a right-wing extremist. For years now, DHS has been warning about them. In January of this year, they issued an intelligence bulletin that warned that right-winged terrorists were specifically targeting the power grid in the exact manner that Moore county was attacked.
Just because you’re not hearing about action does not mean it’s not happening. I bet they already know who did it, through triangulation of cell tower pings. They may have already interviewed the guilty person, and are just giving them enough rope. Odds are, they are “peeling back the onion” to find all (if not a lone wolf) who are associated with that group.
It’s not like TV where they find the entire organization in one hour. This could take months before we hear anything other than “We are still investigating.”
Youre an idiot
https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/2-men-charged-attacks-4-pierce-county-utility-substations/GPL4RPGKFBGZBGSWPZU37WKGO4/