Road closures in NE while Pepco crews continue repairs

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Some Northeast streets will be closed until Wednesday while Pepco crews finish repairing underground cables blamed for last week’s power outage.

Pierce Street, NE between North Capitol Street, NE and First Street, NE will remain closed until Wednesday morning. Other streets in the area that were closed while permanent repairs were made are open.

Another outage on N. Capitol Street delays restoration time

Residents across the Metro region are waking up Thursday morning in darkness - again.

Just hours after Pepco said it fixed the underground issue that caused a day-long blackout along North Capitol Street in D.C., another problem plunged the area back into darkness.

"It’s like hell and I never even been there before,” said resident Carolyn Anthony. “Pepco needs to hurry up and get something done."

Pepco said at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday that power had been restored to all but two commercial businesses in downtown D.C. They said the outage was due to a cable failure.

“This restoration was a team effort involving many crews that worked continuously in the extreme heat to get the job done,” said Thomas H. Graham, President Pepco Region, in a prepared statement. “Our crews will remain on the scene to perform additional repairs and testing to ensure that no further problems arise.”

The cooling center at the Walker Jones Education Campus, 1125 New Jersey Ave., N.W., will remain open until all power is restored.

Also, Arlington County Fire and Rescue say six visitors at the Tomb of Unknown Solider Arlington Cemetery were treated for heat related exhaustion Thursday. Two of the six were transported to hospital.

Thousands without power since Tuesday

Several thousand customers had been without power since Tuesday. Pepco said power lines were overwhelmed since many people have been using so much electricity to stay cool.

"They keep on saying, tomorrow, tomorrow. Tomorrow is not here yet,” said resident Michael Dada.

Residents of Tyler House, an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Capitol Street, were suffering through "sweltering conditions" Wednesday due to the outage. A cooling center is available for affected customers at the Walker Jones Education Campus at 1125 New Jersey Ave. NW.

As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the mayor’s office said 1,500 Pepco customers are out of power in D.C. Dominion reported 399 customers in the dark in Northern Virginia around mid-day.

Schools open as cooling shelter for out-of-power residents

The D.C. government has sent a rapid-response team into the city neighborhoods left without power in the wake of a heat wave, the mayor’s office said.

The mayor’s office said it canvassed affected apartment buildings to ensure residents who weren’t able to leave their homes were safe and had access to medical care if needed.