Update: Power has been restored to most of the area, Pepco said. See our original story below:
(Updated at 7:07 p.m.) Thousands of Pepco customers lost power earlier today, according to the power company.
Nearly 11,000 Pepco customers in a large swath of the Northwestern portion of the city lost power just after 5 p.m. today.
As of about 7 p.m., only about 6,000 customers were without power, according to Pepco’s outage map.
Outages were reported near U Street and in Shaw, LeDroit Park and Chinatown.
Some traffic lights in the area were reported out, warned D.C. Police. Many businesses, restaurants and bars in the area were closed, including Glen’s Garden Market, All Souls, Mulebone and the Anthony Bowen YMCA.
D.C. Fire and EMS reported a transformer fire near the intersection and 14th and V streets NW earlier today.
“Our units standing by as Pepco attempts to cut power to area involved,” D.C. Fire and EMS tweeted. The tweet includes a video of smoke pouring from an open manhole.
Crews assessing damage to equipment in Shaw & surrounding areas. As they work to restore power, estimated restoration times will be updated.
— Pepco (@PepcoConnect) July 15, 2016
Pepco has estimated the power could return to the area throughout tonight and tomorrow.
Image via Pepco Outage Map
(Updated at 10:09 a.m.) Power has been restored to the nearly 600 Pepco customers that were without electricity in and near southern Adams Morgan early this morning.
The outage, which began yesterday afternoon, affected 586 customers in an area centered around U and Vernon streets NW between 18th and 19th streets NW, a Pepco map showed.
Drivers couldn’t travel in either direction on 18th and 19th streets, according to an alert the D.C. government sent out about 7:45 a.m.
Image via Pepco
(Updated at 11:48 a.m.) Thousands of homes and businesses were without power in parts of Columbia Heights, on U Street, near Howard University and elsewhere nearby earlier today, according to utility company Pepco.
Power was restored to most of the area around 11:26 a.m., according to the Pepco outage map.
(Updated at 2:56 p.m.) At least 529 Pepco customers lost power in Shaw just after noon today, the utility company reported on its outage map.
Power was restored to residents and businesses around the Shaw area and on U Street just before 3 p.m. this afternoon, according to the company’s map.
(Updated at 12:29 p.m.) As many as 1,551 customers lost power in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle earlier this morning, reported energy provider Pepco.
As of 12:29 p.m., power had been restored to most of the area. The outage was originally reported around 9:55 a.m.
A Pepco spokesperson said earlier today the power company is still determining the cause of the outage.
This story will be updated as information is available.
@swannlake202 piwer outage #UStreet #metro. No lights escalaors card scanners #wmata #wtop #radio pic.twitter.com/ep5X3vafYI
— kl swa (@swannlake202) August 20, 2015
A power issue caused the lights to go out at the U Street Metro station earlier this morning.
A Metro spokesperson confirmed the station had a “power issue” that affected its lights but not its rail service.
The lights came back on around 10:17 a.m., Metro tweeted.
U Street: Power has been restored, all faregates and escalators have returned to service. 10:17a #wmata
— Metrorail Info (@Metrorailinfo) August 20, 2015
The Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth spotted the outage earlier today.
It wasn’t a solar flare or a malicious attack.
Pepco spokesperson Marcus Beal says a cable failure was responsible for yesterday’s power outage in Adams Morgan that left more than 2,500 residents without electricity for several hours.
“At roughly 11:13 a.m. yesterday, we had a feeder trip at one of our stations,” explained Beal.
A feeder is a power line that typically services 1,500 or more customers, Beal added.
Crews were eventually able to pinpoint the location of the cable that caused the feeder to trip. “There was an actual physical cable failure in a manhole near the 2300 block of Champlain Street [NW],” said Beal.
By 3 p.m., crews had rerouted power around the cable, and electricity was restored to most of Adams Morgan.
Yesterday’s outage coincided with plenty of end-of-world occurrences, noted Gawker.
Our story was linked among the evidence.
Within hours of being linked on Gawker, Borderstan began receiving some curious theories regarding the nature of the outage.
“According to my research, I believe it was a solar flare that caused this,” tweeted one reader.
“Norse sensors from around the world are detecting an attack on America from China,” wrote another commenter. “Your government just doesn’t want you to panic, that’s all.”
But Beal set the record straight.
“It was definitely not related to a solar flare,” he says. “It was a faulty cable.”
(Updated at 4:38 p.m.) As many as 2,500 people lost power in Adams Morgan around 11:18 a.m. today, confirmed Pepco.
By 3:05 p.m., Pepco said it had restored power to the area.
Pepco did not say what the cause of the outage was, but said that the company was still investigating.
