Federal buildings hit by string of outages

State Department employees were sent home or to work at other government buildings on Monday after a construction crew severed a power line servicing the department’s headquarters.

{mosads}“All emergency systems are fully operating under generator power,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “However, it will take PEPCO several hours to restore regular power. All non-emergency personnel are being relocated to other offices or will tele-commute for the remainder of the day.”

Earlier Monday, the Washington Metropolitan Police Department tweeted that officers were responding to reports of a possible power surge or transformer failure at the Office of Personnel Management, which is located about a block away from the State Department.

“The building has been evacuated, and power is reported out in numerous government [buildings] in the area,” the police statement said. “No road closures and no traffic problems reported at this time.”

Outages also appear to be affecting the Federal Reserve, the General Services Administration, the Labor Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, according to CNN.

Reporters at the White House tweeted that power there flickered off briefly but was restored seconds later. It was not clear if the incidents were related.