White House, State Department Lose Power Due To Major Outages
By: American Decency Staff
The White House and State Department lost power Tuesday afternoon due to a major power outage across the nation’s capital and parts of Maryland.
The power went out at the White House for nearly 10 seconds while the State Department conducted its press briefing in the dark. The Justice Department’s power also went down.
The power outage stretched to the University of Maryland’s campus in College Park.
The State Department press briefing continues in darkness. Power outage http://t.co/Ph9Zytt7Hp
Metro stations across Washington, D.C., also are dealing with outages. Metrorail Info tweeted that all Metrorail stations are open and trains have power.
All Metrorail stations remain open and trains have power. If you encounter a dark area (station on backup power) please use caution. #wmata
Pepco says they are currently looking into the cause of the power outages across D.C. Spokesman Sean Kelly told The Associated Press he did not have details about locations or how many customers were affected.
A Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative media relations person told WNEW’s Cameron Thompson that they have restored power to some of their customers, but could not say how many that number was or how many total are without power.
There are widespread outages throughout the D.C. metro area. We are currently investigating the situation.
Washington Post reporter Aaron Davis reports that Homeland Security officials believe an explosion at a SMECO power facility in southern Maryland causes the outages. A SMECO spokesperson could not confirm nor deny the report to WNEW.
D.C. Homeland security officials believe an explosion at a SMECO power facility in southern Maryland caused the surge into D.C.
