WASHINGTON: The White House lost power on Tuesday but only briefly as workers restored it quickly.

A widespread power outage affected downtown Washington on Tuesday morning, forcing officials and power brokers at the White House, the State Department and on Capitol Hill to grope in the dark.

The outage also affected those who come to the US capital to review power games of the distant and recent past at Washington’s museums.

They were forced to leave early as workers emptied the Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery, the Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History.

Take a look: Republicans move to curtail Obama’s power on Iran deal

But the Washington Metro System saved these visitors from using horse-carts for returning home. It managed to run all its trains and 13 stations in the city on emergency powers, (delegated by Congress?)

Officials, however, rejected suggestion that an intense power-struggle between the White House and the Republican-led Congress caused the power breakdown. Instead, they blamed an equipment failure at a Maryland power station for the outrage.

The Department of Homeland Security said it had no immediate reason to believe the blackout was terror-related or a criminal act (as no Muslims were seen in the vicinity of Washington’s powerhouses).

Still, at least 9,400 power purchasers in Washington and suburban Maryland spent almost half the day without light, two power providers — Pepco and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative — said.

Pepco called it a “momentary outage” and said that some customers switched to backup power systems.

At the White House, the lights dimmed in the press briefing room before back-up power kicked in. The State Department’s daily briefing was cut short while the US Capitol complex was running on a back-up generator, a congressional aide told CNBC.

The University of Maryland in College Park also reported that lights were out on campus. The campus closed for the day.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2015

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