On Christmas morning, more than 14,000 utility customers woke up in the dark after three power substations were vandalized in Pierce County, Washington.
A fourth electrical substation was vandalized later on Christmas Day.
According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, two of the substation break-ins occurred at two Tacoma Public Utilities, with the third happening at the Puget Sound Energy station.
So far, no one has been arrested in connection to the vandalism.
In all the substations, the Sheriff’s office reported that intruders managed to get into a fenced area and damaged equipment, causing fires resulting in power outages.
“It’s not yet clear if there was a motive or if this was a coordinated attack on the three-power grid system,” the initial Sheriff’s statement read in part.
According to Puget Sound Energy, an estimated 7,700 customers were affected by the 2:30 am attack, and by 5 am, the power was restored. Tacoma Public Utilities reported that the outage affected 7,300 customers, and the company managed to restore power to all except 2,700 before noon. However, by 5:30 pm, approximately 900 customers hadn’t gotten power back.
In a statement on Facebook, Tacoma Public Utilities said initial tests from some places indicated the impact on the system was more severe, while confirming that other clients would receive power later than expected.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security warned that the US critical infrastructure could be a possible target of attacks by small groups and people acting alone, motivated by ideological or personal grievances.
In early November in North Carolina, two electrical substations were fired on, making tens of thousands of residents lose power and prompting a state or emergency.
There are still more than six unsolved incidents at power stations in North Carolina, Oregon and Washington State which led to power outages.