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Resident urges county planning for 'grid down' scenarios, warns of transformer vulnerability
Summary
A resident urged Harnett County commissioners to prepare for extended manmade power outages — including electromagnetic pulse events — and to communicate preparedness steps for vulnerable residents and critical services.
HARNETT COUNTY — During the June 16 public comment period, resident Larry Mitchell urged county leaders to plan for extended power outages caused by manmade incidents, including electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events, and to consider protective steps for critical county assets.
Mitchell described electricity as essential to 911, the sheriff’s office, hospitals and county operations and said a prolonged outage could last “3 days, it could be down for a month, or it could be down for years.” He told commissioners transformers and substation equipment are costly to replace and that some generators and vehicle systems would be disabled by an EMP. Mitchell urged the county to evaluate protective devices for emergency vehicles and to have public guidance for vulnerable populations, saying “we need to inform the public what to do when we have... a man made disaster like this.”
Mitchell referenced a documentary and media accounts about grid vulnerabilities and said the United States operates in multiple interconnection zones; those references were presented as the speaker’s sources and were not independently verified by county staff during the meeting.
No formal county action was taken during the meeting in response to Mitchell’s comments; commissioners acknowledged the remark and staff agreed to note the request for follow‑up consideration in emergency planning processes.
