GREENSBORO, N.C. — Update: Gov. Roy Cooper speaks as thousands are without power in Moore County.
Duke Energy manages more than 32,000 miles of transmission lines, across several states, that feed into one of their 5,000 substations.
These facilities reduce the voltage from higher transmission lines to a safe voltage to power homes and businesses.
"We understand that we are critical infrastructure and said we do incorporate multiple layers of security at all of our facilities and across our system," said Duke Energy Spokesperson, Jeff Brooks.
Brooks was not able to detail exactly what those layers of security include.
But adds even if their equipment is intentionally damaged, they have plans in place to get the power restored as quickly as possible.
"We have to plan for it, and we do plan for this. This is part of our protocol, this is part of our planning, and we are working the plan now," said Brooks.
Brooks says deliberate acts like the one in Moore County create a bigger challenge than the weather outages that are pretty normal.
That's why it could take up to three days to get lights back on for everyone.
"We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment," said Brooks.
According to Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields, multiple gunshots took down two Duke Energy Substations before 8 p.m. Saturday.
Initially, leaving more than 37,000 Duke Energy customers and nearly 3,000 Randolph EMC customers in the dark.
"We've been in the dark figuratively and literally for 24 hours now. A lot of people watching from outside of Moore county might know about what's happening that we don't here," said Andrew Wilkins.
Vandals put plans for Wilkins and his family on hold.
The Moore County native was in town to celebrate a late Thanksgiving with his parents.
Instead of cooking, they are huddling by the fire to stay warm.
"It's frustrating, it's unfortunate, frankly, it's some levels infuriating. We can plan for natural disasters. But in this case, people didn't get any runway at all to get ready for this," said Wilkins.
In a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Fields also shared the struggles this incident will cause the citizens and businesses of Moore county, just three weeks before Christmas.
"We're just getting over COVID and now this and how it's going to hurt all of our restaurants and the businesses and stuff so it's going to hurt," said Sheriff Fields.
The Moore County Sheriff's office will have additional security at all of their substations offer the coming days.
WFMY did reach out to local law enforcement about added security measures in our area, including the Guilford County Sheriff's office, Alamance County Sheriff's office and the Greensboro Police Department.
So far, we have only heard back from Randolph County who, currently, is not planning any additional precautions.