`Friday the 13th' blackout hits D.C.
WASHINGTON (AP) - June 13, 2008 Frustrated officials muttered darkly about the "Friday the
13th" blackout as some government employees were given the rest of
the day off. Pepco, the utility provider, reported power was
restored to all customers before 11 a.m.
The power went out at 7:25 a.m., idling arriving office workers
outside darkened workplaces. Two small fires on Metro tracks
snarled morning subway commutes. It wasn't clear whether the fires
were caused by power problems, which have been blamed in the past
for track fires.
At one point, Pepco reported more than 18,000 customers without
power. A single office building is one customer, and it was unclear
how many affected were residential users, and how many were
commercial customers.
The White House went smoothly to backup power.
"The White House had been running on generator power, and all
essential functions were operational," deputy press secretary Tony
Fratto said.
Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said workers traced the problem to
some substation equipment in the Chinatown area and planned a
statement later. The outage cast Pepco's downtown headquarters into
darkness though a generator provided power for some lights and
phones.
"We certainly know what our customers are experiencing," he
said.
Elsewhere, traffic lights were knocked out, contributing to
accidents in which two pedestrians were injured, said Alan Etter, a
spokesman for District of Columbia fire and emergency medical
services.
"Friday the 13th certainly is living up to its reputation,"
Etter said.
Metro riders experienced long delays after two fires at the
Metro Center station, which forced trains to share a single track.
The first fire was reported at 7:24 a.m. and the second at about
9:50 a.m.
Spokeswoman Taryn McNeil said officials hadn't determined what
caused the latest in a string of Metro woes.
On June 4, storms knocked power lines down on aboveground Metro
tracks in the northern Virginia suburbs, delaying commuters for
hours. A train derailment with no injuries followed Monday in those
suburbs. Commuters on the same line were held up Wednesday when
scorching heat warped rails.
On Friday, Metro also closed the Dupont Circle station because
of a lack of power to run the escalators, which at 188 feet were
deemed too long for passengers to handle.
Before the station closed, Etter said many people complained of
breathing difficulties going up the steps. Nine people were
treated, including a 50-year-old man taken to a hospital because of
problems with his implanted defibrillator.
Meanwhile, some welcomed a long weekend.
Brian McDonald, a 27-year-old federal worker, said he stood for
about an hour outside his darkened office building before being
told he could go.
"I'm going to hit the links right now," he said.
Just then the lights came back on in his building, but McDonald
was already gone.
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Associated Press writers Karen Mahabir and Brett Zongker
contributed to this report.
