Power outage strikes much of Washington, D.C., including the White House
The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Reuters)
A power outage reportedly struck much of Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning.
The U.S. State Department, White House, Capitol and Justice Department were among the buildings that lost power.
A White House spokesperson said that backup generators kicked in initially after the outage, according to a tweet from Mark Knoller, a CBS News correspondent.
The Department of Energy, which is responsible for the nation’s power, was also affected by the outage. That fact did not go unnoticed in the Twittersphere.
Rather ironic that the @ENERGY Department was affected by a widespread power outage in the Washington DC area?
— Joelon Wilson (@futureicon)
Yes the DC power outage has effected the Department Of Energy. pic.twitter.com/wVvKXI6dik
— Derrick Robinson (@Derrick_James)
Other areas throughout the D.C. metro area, including the University of Maryland in College Park, went dark.
“There is a campus-wide power outage. Crews are working on addressing the problem. Thank you for your patience,” university President Wallace D. Loh tweeted.
Shortly after, Loh explained that there was a problem with the electric feed to the campus and that Pepco, the main electricity service provider for D.C., was working on the problem.
At least one class at the university’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism decided to move its discussion outside.
Outdoor classes spring up after power outages…hope it doesn’t rain. @merrillcollege pic.twitter.com/lbaruWHFIP
— Rob Wells (@rwells1961)
A congressional aide said a backup generator was helping the U.S. Capitol complex to continue operations, according to Reuters.
The Washington Metro said that some metro stations in the nation’s capital resorted to emergency lighting, though all remained open. Commuters were asked to be cautious when entering a dark station.
All Metrorail stations remain open and trains have power. If you encounter a dark area (station on backup power) please use caution. #wmata
— Metrorail Info (@Metrorailinfo)
As expected, plenty of people took to Twitter to crack wise about the outage. Some even suggested that this sort of incident could provide fodder for a film storyline.
This is the first scene in White House Down II. #poweroutage
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp)
A power outage at The White House? There’s goes the major storyline for my Die Hard-National Treasure crossover movie.
— Hall of Very Good™ (@HOVG)
State Department, el fin. pic.twitter.com/Do2E0leqId
— Benny (@bennyjohnson)
Duke wins last night and there’s a campus power outage at UMD today. Coincidence I THINK NOT
— Tish (@tishcaa)
The Washington Post reported that D.C. utilities and homeland security officials were investigating and that “an explosion at a southern Maryland electrical facility is believed to have caused the power surge that temporarily knocked out power to the White House and much of downtown Washington.”
The show must go on! @StateDept spox @marieharf briefs by the light of her iPhone after the power goes out. pic.twitter.com/GXLOcKj6vR
— Nicole Gaouette (@nicolegaouette)