About 39,000 Pepco customers lost electrical service for much of Saturday after an issue with a D.C. substation.
Pepco said the outages resulted from an issue with electrical equipment at a substation on Florida Avenue, Northwest. Service had returned to most customers by 4 a.m. Sunday.
We are pleased to report all remaining customers impacted by the event at our Florida Avenue substation had their energy service restored at 2:48 a.m. this morning. Critical equipment in our substation was severely damaged. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
— Pepco (@PepcoConnect) July 28, 2019
A caller to WTOP reported power going out in the National Rehab Center in Northwest D.C.
A number of traffic signals also went dark due to the outages, with city officials asking drivers encountering darkened lights to treat them as a four-way intersection.
The power outages impacted three hospitals in the District: Howard University Hospital; Children’s National; and MedStar Washington Hospital, said Chris Rodriguez, director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
“We immediately, at the direction of the mayor, activated our emergency operations center, which means we brought in all relevant District agencies to the emergency operations center in Anacostia,” Rodriguez said.
“The most important thing for us is to ensure the safety and security of the residents of the District of Columbia.”
D.C. Fire and EMS helped to pry several elevators open after the outages left it suspended between floors. There were a total of 16 elevator rescues across the District on Saturday.
@PoPville thankful for @dcfireems helping to get an elevator open. Dc power outage. pic.twitter.com/rvc7ZTCM1L
— Holly Gerrity (@Holly_Gerrity) July 27, 2019
All three of D.C.’s rescue squads and several truck and ladder companies were used during the rescue.
No injuries have been reported as a result of the outages.
The map below contains current power outages in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. This map is updated every 10 minutes.
