Major power outage sweeps Washington, White House

The White House
A power outage swept the Washington area Tuesday,
hitting the White House, the Capitol and the State
Department and knocking out electricity for thousands
around the US capital.
Outages stretched from downtown Washington into
neighboring Maryland, knocking power out for more
than 2,500 people, according to area power companies.
Most outages were brief, but computer sy
stems were downtown offices and access to Metro
trains were disrupted.
Washington power provider Pepco said the outage was
caused by a dip in voltage as a result of an issue with
the transmission line.
“There was never a loss of permanent supply of
electricity to customers,” Pepco said.
Electricity was back to normal by mid-afternoon and
the company had dispatched teams to look into how it
happened.
“Customers should be able to operate their own
equipment at this time. There are no current supply
problems. We have crews on site investigating the
cause.”
Outages were reported at more than 2,100 premises
and households in Washington, according to Pepco, and
more in Maryland suburbs southeast of the capital
Major government buildings were not spared, including
the White House, which lost power briefly.
Back-up generators kicked in promptly to restore lights
and computers that were knocked out for several
seconds, according to an AFP reporter.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was
no indication that the outage was as a result of a
security breach.
“I do not currently see a nexus to terrorism,” he told
reporters.
The State Department went dark in the middle of a
press briefing, which continued on for a time in the
dark, a spokeswoman reading from her notes with the
light from her cellphone.
“The State Department was among the buildings
affected today by a power outage,” spokesman Jeff
Rathke said.
“The department has continued to carry out its
essential functions throughout the outage.”
Lights had returned to the building by mid-afternoon.
Power at Capitol Hill flickered on and off intermittently
but was later restored, an official there said.
The Department of Homeland Security ruled out foul
play, and said it was “closely monitoring the reports of
power outages affecting parts of Washington, DC.”
“At this time, there is no indication that this outage is
the result of any malicious activity,” DHS added.
– Portraits in the dark –
Elsewhere, several Smithsonian buildings were
evacuated as they went dark, including the Air and
Space museum and the American Art museum, which
was closed. They later reopened.
The Portrait Gallery was also lights out, posting a
photo of a darkened hall on Twitter.
“In case you wanted to see what a museum looks like
when there’s a power outage,” the caption read.
Dan Kuntz, visiting from DuBois, Pennsylvania, was
winding up his visit to the National Portrait Gallery
when the lights went out.
“The power started flickering, and then boom,” he told
AFP as he enjoyed a soda on the steps of the National
Air and Space Museum, which had also been affected.
Museum staff corralled most visitors into the open-air
cafeteria space, said Kuntz, who himself made a bee
line to the exit and proceeded to the National Museum
of Natural History, which remained open.
Several metro stations lost power and were on
emergency lighting, but trains continued to run in the
nation’s capital.
Metro police said on Twitter “units responding to assist
at all stations affected by power outages. No elevator
entrapments reported at any station.”
Power had returned to most metro depots by
afternoon.
The hashtag #dcpoweroutage was one of the top
trends after the cut, with some users posting photos of
darkened subway tunnels and the lights-out State
Department briefing.
By later Tuesday afternoon, the regional power
company, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, said
only seven people were without power in the region.

posted from Bloggeroid