Power outages hit 1,176 customers in downtown Washington, D.C., on November 2, knocking out traffic signals and forcing The George Washington University to cancel its morning classes a day before the midterm elections.
The disruption was concentrated in Foggy Bottom. Pepco said it followed an incident at its I Street substation, where crews were assessing conditions and working to bring customers back online. The company asked people to stay away from its work areas for their safety.
In its November 2 statement, the utility said:
The cause remains under investigation, with no indication of foul play at this time. Our focus remains on safely restoring power to our customers.
The 1,176 figure came from an official city alert relaying the utility's outage report. It counts customers, rather than the total number of people inside affected homes, offices and other buildings.
Smoke from manholes and traffic lights out
D.C. Fire and EMS said it responded to reports of smoke coming from multiple manholes in the 1800 block of H Street NW. The department said the utility was on the scene assisting with a power surge and electrical outages in the area.
The WTOP Traffic Center reported dark signals at numerous intersections nearby. Its newsroom also obtained an email from a utility spokesperson describing the situation at the substation as developing, with no word yet on when service would return.
That left the immediate response focused on the electrical problem and restoring service. The utility's statement did not identify the equipment involved or explain what had gone wrong at the substation.
Campus disruption carries into the afternoon
The university initially canceled both in-person and remote morning classes. Its November 2 advisory later allowed a limited return to academic activity, but many students' schedules remained on hold for the rest of the day.
Activities at the Virginia Science and Technology campus and the Arlington and Alexandria Education Centers were allowed to resume in person and online. School of Medicine and Health Sciences activities at Ross Hall could resume in person, while GW Law was allowed to return online only.
For everyone outside those exceptions, the instruction was clear:
All other academic activities are suspended for the remainder of today, Monday, November 2.
The campus advisory still listed major facilities without power, including Gelman Library, the University Student Center, the Elliott School, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Smith Center. Several residence halls were also on the list.
Other buildings had power, including Science and Engineering Hall, Ross Hall and the Milken Institute School of Public Health. The Mount Vernon campus was listed as having power too.
Dining services remained available at Mount Vernon, but were unavailable at Thurston Hall, District House and Shenkman Hall. The university also warned its community to expect problems with GWorld, parking and network-based services.
Campus Operations and Campus Safety were coordinating with university and local partners. People who found that a building's actual condition differed from the advisory were asked to submit a FixIt ticket so the information could be checked.
Where customers can get updates
The campus notice said the university did not have an estimated restoration time. It directed its community to Campus Advisories and email for further information as the work continued.
Students and staff could also check the GW Guardian app for emergency alerts. The university said all community members automatically receive emergency emails and can add mobile numbers for text alerts.
The city's outage alert told affected customers to call 202-833-7500 for updates. The utility's published outage-reporting number is 877-737-2662, and customers can also use its outage website or mobile app to report a loss of service.