10,000 customers in Pentagon City, Crystal City, more have power restored after cable problem in Arlington County

by: Makea Luzader

Posted: Aug 22, 2023 / 03:23 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 22, 2023 / 09:58 PM EDT

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) — Crews worked much of Tuesday afternoon to restore electricity to thousands of customers who lost power in Pentagon City, Crystal City, and surrounding areas, according to Dominion Energy.

At 2 p.m., Dominion’s outage map showed more than 10,000 customers were without electricity in the eastern part of Arlington County. The map said that crews were working on the problem.

A Dominion Energy spokeswoman said that crews hoped to have power back on by 3:30 p.m.

According to officials, one worker may have been injured, but they “believe he’s going to be fine.”

Dominion Energy said that it had an “underground cable that had a fault,” which caused a transformer to lock out. Officials said that there were “some flames.”

Reagan National Airport also was affected by the outage, but according to the outage map, power had since been restored.

At 12:35 p.m., Arlington Parks and Recreation said that Long Bridge Aquatic and Fitness Center and Gunston Community Center were closed because of a power outage. All of the programs were canceled.

By 5:25 p.m., Dominion Energy’s outage map showed power was back to all but about 1,000 customers. The last block of customers without power was located near 15th St. S and Crystal Drive, including people living in apartments and businesses, such as Amazon Fresh.

“I was at the CVS [when the power went out],” said Jamond Perry, who lives in the area. “The lights went off in the CVS, and when the lights went off, I knew the lights were also off at the apartment building.”

Perry said his apartment has been dealing with outages more frequently; another resident of a nearby apartment, Marie Callegari, said the most recent outage came during an August storm.

“Just be transparent,” Callegari said of Dominion Energy, who she urged to communicate with landlords and apartment owners — who in turn should communicate with residents.

“It’s hot,” Perry said, describing the hours in the apartment without air conditioning. “Thankfully it’s not as hot as it has been, but it’s still hot.”

At around 9 p.m., Dominion Energy said it restored power to all customers in Arlington County.

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