Power outages impact National Harbor, Tanger Outlet mall

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (DC News Now) — Pepco crews were in the National Harbor area after multiple power outages were reported due to Sunday afternoon’s storms.

A spokesperson confirmed the National Harbor area and Tanger Outlet mall were impacted by the outages. Employees at the mall told DC News Now the power was knocked out at about 2 p.m. and shut down for the rest of the day as crews worked to restore power.

“It’s very frustrating to me,” said Louise Turner, an employee at Banana Republic.

She’s not upset that she got off work hours earlier. What bothers Turner is what she and the shoppers had to endure to get home.

“I just think that they should have protected the people that work here a little bit better by allowing them to get out of here, at least with a ride,” Turner said. “Instead of having to walk to the top of the mall.”

Another employee, Kaliyah Jean-Francois, who works at Under Armour, was glad to head home earlier than normal.

“The storm was really bad. Even on my way here, it was really bad,” she said.

Customers are urged to stay away from downed wires and to assume any wire on the ground is energized. You can report an outage or downed wire by calling 1-877-737-2662.

Neighbors in the area can check the status of repairs by visiting Pepco’s outage map online.

“It’s supposed to rain again. So it could get worse. You never know,” Jean-Francois said.

“We know it is hard to be without electric service, especially during the current hot weather our region is experiencing. We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we work safely to return service to them as quickly as possible,” a Pepco spokesperson said to DC News Now in a statement.

As of 4:45 p.m., about 5,000 people were impacted.