This archive report was first published on 27 July 2019.
On a sweltering Saturday, a power failure knocked out electricity to over 39,000 customers in Washington, D.C., with most affected in the northwest quadrant of the nation's capital, according to Potomac Electric Power Company officials.
Published on July 27, 2019, at 11:31 PM, the power outage occurred as temperatures reached the low 90s, causing widespread disruptions across the city.
Kevin Donahue, the city's deputy mayor for public safety and justice, estimated on Twitter that power would be restored between 3 and 7 p.m.
Frank Tedesco, a spokesman for Potomac Electric Power Company, said the company had pinpointed the source of the problem, citing an issue with electrical equipment at their Florida Avenue substation.
Most of the affected customers were in the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods, with the company unable to determine the cause of the equipment failure or whether it was related to the heat.
City firefighters responded to calls about smoking backup generators and automatic fire alarms, with two hospitals, Howard University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center, affected by the power outage.
While no injuries were reported, some residents took to social media to share their experiences, including Mark McDevitt, who was sitting in a coffee shop when the power went out.
“We could see that if went off across the street,” he said. “And then a couple of business owners around the block came in to chat with one another.”
The subway was running normally, according to the Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and traffic was not significantly affected, with only one traffic light reported to be out.
