Official: Blast at power plant caused Washington outages
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Widespread power outages affected the White House, State Department, Capitol and other sites across Washington and its suburbs Tuesday - all because of an explosion at a power plant in the adjoining state of Maryland.
Many of the outages were brief, but others were longer and forced evacuations.
At the White House, backup generators kicked on when the power went out, so the interruption lasted only a few seconds. The complex quickly went back onto regular power. Electricity in the press briefing room dipped around lunchtime, briefly darkening cubicles and blackening TV screens.
Power also went out at the State Department during the daily press briefing, forcing spokeswoman Marie Harf to finish her comments to reporters in the dark.
