On the afternoon of April 7, a power outage occurred across much of Washington, D.C. This loss of power is not suspected to be attributed to any criminal involvement. It was reportedly due to a small explosion that took place at a power station in southern Maryland.
The fire caused by the explosion at the power station was easily contained. However, the outage affected government buildings, metro stations, The Smithsonian and the University of Maryland, College Park campus.
The White House lost power briefly before backup generators kicked in. Many of the metro stations that were affected by the outage also had to resort to back up generators in order to keep the trains running.
While some places did manage to gain power back quickly in the DC area, others did not. The College Park campus, for instance, shut down for the rest of the day due to the outage.
Liz Brown, a junior at College Park, described how she was unable to access one of her class buildings shortly after the outage.
“I heard a beeping noise, and didn’t think much of it,” Brown said. But I saw some students coming out…the beeping was a security alarm and the whole building was dark except for one light I saw on in one of the rooms, which I thought was weird because usually the building is really bright.”
“We spent 45 minutes in class without power until my professor asked if there were any other buildings on campus that were out of power, “Brown went on to say. “It turned out there were, so he stopped his lecture and let us go. When I walked outside I heard some girl say that all of D.C. was out of power and no one knew why.”
It was around 2 p.m. that the College Park campus closed, and according to the Washington Post, about 12 people were trapped in the elevators across the campus. They were rescued by firefighters.
According to a CNN report, the outage affected around 2,000 people in D.C. Pepco, an electric service supplier, has been working to resolve the problem.
Sources:
Davis, Aaron C., and Julie Zauzmer. “Power Surge Knocks out Electrical Service in Parts of D.C. Region.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/scattered-power-outages-reported-across-dc-area/2015/04/07/8f4e8b84-dd49-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html>.
Diamond, Jeremy. “D.C. Hit by Power Outage – CNN.com.” CNN. Cable News Network, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/politics/power-outage-washington-dc/>.
Rosenfeld, Everett. “Power Returns to DC after Widespread Outage.” CNBC. N.p., 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102566826>.
