Four electrical substations in the Tacoma, Wash., area were attacked Sunday, affecting thousands of customers, authorities said.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department described the early morning attacks on two Tacoma Public Utilities substations and a Puget Sound Energy facility as acts of vandalism, without identifying those responsible.
“It is unknown if there is a motive or if this is a coordinated attack on electrical systems,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Crews work to restore power to a power substation in Pierce County, Wash., Monday.
The agency estimated that the number of homes and businesses affected was 14,000 at one point on Sunday when three substations were affected.
The sheriff’s department described a fourth incident Sunday at about 7:21 p.m. at another Puget Sound power substation.
“The suspects gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment that started the fire,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “There are no suspects in custody at this time.”
The fourth incident at a utility substation in South Pierce County on Christmas Day prompted increased security.
“All law enforcement agencies in the county have been notified of the incidents and will be monitoring electrical substations in their area,” the statement said.
Power was restored to most of the affected homes, the sheriff’s department said.
Puget Sound Energy confirmed in a statement Monday that two of its substations were attacked.
“We are coordinating with authorities regarding suspected acts of vandalism at two of our substations. Both incidents are under investigation and no further details are available. PSE has extensive measures in place to monitor, protect and minimize risk to our equipment and infrastructures”, the statement. said
Puget Sound Energy said on its website Sunday that more than 1,200 customers were without power, the vast majority of which had been reconnected, but it was unclear if that was related to the attack.
Tacoma Public Utilities said more than 7,000 of its customers in the communities of Graham and Elk Plain were without power Sunday and that it continued to work on restoration.
Power appears to have been restored to many of those TPU customers: National outage tracker PowerOutage.us reported Sunday afternoon that fewer than 5,000 customers remained without power across the state .
In a statement, TPU said: “Two of our substations were deliberately targeted by physical attacks.”
The sheriff’s department said a person or people broke into the facility and vandalized equipment in each of those attacks, the first of which was reported at 2:39 a.m.
TPU said federal law enforcement warned this month of the possibility of attacks and recommended a security assessment. He would not say what measures, if any, he has taken.
At the same time, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Seattle Public Radio KUOW reported separate attacks at six substations operated by Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy in Washington and Oregon. -From November The incidents are alleged to have involved breaches of utility properties, the outlets said.
On Dec. 3, vandals attacked two Duke Energy substations in Moore County, North Carolina, leaving 45,000 customers in the dark for more than three days, officials said. People with guns opened fire and, in one case, breached a facility, they said, and remained at large nearly a month later.
As power was restored to the last of the North Carolina customers on Dec. 7, someone opened fire near a Duke Energy hydro facility in Ridgeway, South Carolina, about 130 miles to the south of Moore County. Federal investigators were comparing ballistics evidence in both attacks to determine if they were connected.
Investigators probing the North Carolina attacks were sifting through online conspiracy theories to determine whether any played a role, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said this month.
A prevailing theory was that the outages were meant to close a drag performance, “Downtown Divas,” at the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Anti-LGBTQ protesters targeted the location in the days leading up to Saturday night’s event, which continued in the dark before ending early.
Electric infrastructure has long been on the hit list of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists seeking to “destabilize” America, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. in February
Earlier this year, three men pleaded guilty in connection with a plot to disrupt the power grid, sow civil unrest and economic uncertainty and ultimately spark a race war, federal prosecutors said at the time.
There is no indication that the attacks in Washington, Oregon and the Carolinas had similar motives. Sunday’s attacks in the Tacoma area remained under investigation.
Dennis Romero
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Antonio Planas
Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Erick Mendoza contributed.