Attack on California transformers a dress rehearsal for terror?

Cue the Megatron jokes, I know...but this sounds scary as heck:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grid-terror-20140207,0,5892405.story#axzz2seUDBAVL

 

Just think if it wasn't job creators who poisoned West Virginia's water supply but unknown possible terrorists.

 

A couple of thoughts.

First, attack plans often involve knocking out communications early in the script, so as to minimize a coordinated response. Want to cut off comms for an entire region? It could hardly be simpler than what these shooters did. I'm buying the notion that it was a dress rehearsal, and I can't help but think that the actual performance would involve much more than taking down a substation. The possibilities are extensive and quite sobering.

Second, the story talks about well-trained snipers. You don't have to be Bob Lee Swagger to make those shots from 40 yards away.

 

I saw this story in the WSJ this week and essentially thought the same thing; if this doesn't rattle the cage of every utility exec . . .

 

Especially since they missed 10 times.

The one guy was quoted as saying it wasn't just some Bubbas who had a couple of beers and decided to shoot up the place. That might be true. Then again, it could have been exactly that. Sure, they didn't hit the parts of the transformers that cause explosions. But maybe that's because they didn't know where to aim to make that happen.

 

They knew what they were shooting at.

I've looked into this before for another reason — EMP — but those giant substation transformers are not cheap or plentiful. They are hand-built and it takes weeks to months to construct just one. If one of them blows, probably not a problem. If 20 to 100 of them blow at once, that's a huge problem. It could collapse the grid for weeks.

 

Given my knowledge of drunk rednecks with guns, I don't put that past them.

But maybe it was a terrorist attack. Or a Luddite attack.