A power surge temporarily knocked out power to the White House, State Department and wide swaths of the nation’s capital and its Maryland suburbs early Tuesday afternoon.
D.C. homeland security officials, utility providers and law enforcement officers in Charles County, Md., said a fire or explosion at an electrical facility in Southern Maryland appeared to be the source of the surge.
The incident left passengers in darkened underground Metro stations, halted elevators in office buildings and forced the entire University of Maryland campus in College Park to close early as it remained unclear when power would be restored to some parts of the region.
The surge also triggered dozens of federal buildings and government facilities to flip over to emergency backup generators, and, coming in the nation’s capital, where tight security precautions are routine out of fears of terrorism, left many residents jittery until the source of the failure began to emerge.
By 2:30 p.m., homeland security officials both locally and nationally said it appeared that terrorism was not an issue.