A widespread power outage in Washington D.C.the White House, the State Department, the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department, and the Department of Energy are among the buildings that lost powerwas apparently caused by an explosion at a southern Maryland electrical facility, according to the Washington Post.
From the Post:
The explosion was at a facility run by SMECO, a customer-owned electric that serves parts of the Districts Maryland suburbs, said Nicole Chapple, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency
Chris T. Geldart, director of the agency, said the District experienced a broad power surge that left many downtown buildings dark or on backup generation.
Some parts of D.C. may not have power restored until tomorrow afternoon, according to WNEWs Chuck Carroll.
Chris Geldart, director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, told the Post that any government offices with critical operations centers have switched over to back-up generators.
NBC News reports that officials at Homeland Security don't believe the outage was caused by terrorism.
Outages have also been reported at the University of Maryland, College Park, where people are reportedly stuck in elevators, and at 13 D.C. Metro stations, though trains are apparently running on time.
UPDATE 2:33 pm: The outages were caused by an equipment failure, not an explosion, according to NBC Washington.