Power Failure Causes Havoc Downtown
D.C. Offices and Intersections Darkened; Metro Is Snarled

By Petula Dvorak and Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 14, 2008

A single switch in a Pepco substation failed yesterday morning, cutting power to the heart of the nation's capital, including the White House and downtown offices. The outage shut down Metro stations, threw rush-hour traffic into a state of bedlam and highlighted how vulnerable the city can be.

"It was like each man for himself. Trucks were pulling out in front of buses; people were on the street. It was like a Third World country," said David Zaidain, 34, a city planner who was stunned by the level of anarchy he encountered while walking to work along Ninth Street NW. "We're living under this veil of potential terror, and this is how the city responds to something like this?"

During the outage, which began about 7:30 a.m. and lasted nearly three hours, the chaos was exacerbated when two fires ignited on the tracks along Metro's Red Line, causing further delays and breakdowns in Metro cars packed with sweaty, frustrated commuters. Metro officials said the Pepco failure resulted in a surge in Metro's power grid, which caused two stud bolts to fail, triggering the fires.

Ambulances and police cars zigzagged across town. Three pedestrians were struck by cars along the dozens of city blocks that had no traffic signals, and nine people were treated by paramedics after scaling the steep Metro escalators. Intersections gridlocked as tempers flared and horns blared, and many people complained over the din about a lack of police officers and traffic personnel to help unravel the mess.

As systems broke down one by one and phone trees lighted up across the city, public officials, power company executives and homeland security agents raced to dispel the worst fear. "This was not terrorist-related," D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said.

But it did reveal the frailty of infrastructure in the nation's capital.

"I'm troubled by about how much of a power outage there was, but we've got to bear some of the responsibility and blame, too," Fenty said. "There was not enough communication."

Pepco officials said they communicated with city and federal officials within minutes of learning of the switch failure, which caused a loud boom heard by residents in Chinatown.

The substation that powers most of the downtown grid with four giant circuits is located there. It was already compromised, running on just three circuits after officials closed one down Thursday night when a cooling pump problem was suspected, said Michael Sullivan, Pepco's senior vice president for operations.

When one of the three switches leading to a circuit failed, the entire substation shut down automatically, leaving about 12,000 customers in Northwest Washington without power in an area bounded by U and F streets and 17th and Third streets, he said. In power company parlance, one customer can be an entire office building, meaning thousands of people were affected.

Power company technicians are trying to learn what caused the switch to blow, an investigation that could take weeks, Sullivan said.

Fenty said he was concerned that such a widespread blackout could happen because of a systemic problem.

"As we go forward, I want to get assurances from Pepco that this kind of technical problem could not cause so much of a blackout," he said. "I understand there were storms and the heat . . . but I want to talk with Pepco about how to make sure that if there is a technical problem, it cannot result in this much of an outage."

Pepco officials said the safety systems that caused the automatic shutdown worked as they should.

Thomas Graham, Pepco's regional president, said the company estimated that power would be back on by 10 a.m. Many customers had lights again by 9:50 a.m., and power was completely restored to the city center by 10:15 a.m., he said.

Across the city, generators installed for just such an emergency revved up, and lights came back on. The White House functioned smoothly with one generator, and Pepco's own generator powered the utility's downtown headquarters, Graham said.

But the District's Department of Transportation decided not to use the generators it bought with $3 million received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure that traffic lights would function during a blackout, spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc said.

"Pepco indicated they felt the power would be up before noon, so we opted not to use the generators for the power outage this morning," LeBlanc said.

The department received the generators last year after summer storms knocked out traffic signals for days along the Mall. The generators take about 90 minutes to restore power to signals along evacuation routes, LeBlanc said.

That decision was discussed during a conference call between the District's agencies to coordinate the response, said Darrell Darnell, director of D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Metro does not have backup generators at its stations, but generators were sent out to boost the emergency light systems, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

The trains are powered separately by an electrified third rail, and commuters trapped in the dark stumbled out of five downtown stations by augmenting the stations' dim emergency lights with the glow of their cellphones.

Normal service resumed by about 1 p.m., and the afternoon commute was smooth.

Stranded riders who had to exit at stations that had no functioning Farecard machines or escalators -- Dupont Circle, Shaw-Howard, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square -- were not charged for those rides, Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said. The Farecard machines were reprogrammed and operating smoothly for the afternoon commute.

The two track fires were caused by smoldering stud bolts -- pieces of hardware that help hold the track in place -- and closed the Metro Center station briefly during the morning rush, compounding delays, crowding and confusion at a major downtown transfer hub.

The first track fire at Metro Center was reported at 7:24 a.m.; the five stations lost power six minutes later.

In addition, the Dupont Circle station was closed for an hour and a half starting at 9:25 a.m. because some riders who had to walk up the long escalators at that station were tripping, Metro officials said. The escalators on the Q Street side are 188 feet long.

Delays and confusion were widespread. Metro trains going in opposite directions had to share a track to maneuver around the Metro Center fire.

As a result, trains were backed up in both directions on the Red Line, Metro's busiest, with delays stretching for hours as passengers sat on stalled trains or waited for shuttle buses that had to negotiate streets with no working traffic lights.

Lynn Ross, 31, who works at the Center for Housing Policy, got on her Red Line train at Silver Spring about 8:40 a.m. to head to Farragut North. As the train entered downtown stations, it became more and more crowded.

By the time it reached Gallery Place and Metro Center, "we were packed in like sardines," she said. On the platform, "you could see people five, six, seven deep waiting to get on."

When the train reached Farragut North, the station was very dark and crowded, she said. "It was very eerie," she said.

Like others, she pulled out her cellphone to use its light as a guide.

She could see no Metro personnel on the platform to direct traffic.

"I could see a woman who was wearing light colors, and I could see her outlines and I got behind her and followed her," she said.

During the afternoon rush, when business was back to normal, several passengers complained about the frequency of problems and delays on Metro -- from the derailment at the start of the week to broken escalators and elevators.

"There are so many delays, I don't even pay attention anymore," said Tammy Smutny, 44, sitting on a Red Line train headed home to North Bethesda. "It's just like an airport. You're just grateful if you get there safely."

Staff writers Sindya N. Bhanoo, Michael Birnbaum, James Hohmann, Ben Hubbard, David Nakamura and Mary Beth Sheridan contributed to this report