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White House without power in Washington DC power outage

Many government buildings are without power as officials rush to determine the cause

Payton Guion
Tuesday 07 April 2015 19:07 BST
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(Getty Images)

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The White House may be home to the most powerful man in the world, but that did not stop the presidential residence to fall victim to a widespread power outage Tuesday in Washington.

The US State Department and several Smithsonian museums were hit by the outage and the US Capitol -- which houses Congress -- was running on a backup generator, Reuters reported.

A government official who wished to remain anonymous said that there is no reason to suspect terrorism it to blame.

An official at the Department of Homeland Security told ABC News that preliminary information indicated the outage was caused by an explosion at a power station in Maryland.

Power at the White House and other government buildings has been regained, though it is not clear if through a generator or if power was restored.

Pepco, the local power company, has reported that about 2,000 customers are without power, CNN reported.

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