The outage struck everything from the White House to the State Department, where government employees and reporters saw lights and power flicker out.

Power at CNN‘s D.C. bureau twice flickered off and on early in the afternoon.

The power went out during the daily State Department briefing, with Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf using a phone light to continue taking questions from reporters. Power remained off for the State Department as of 1:15 p.m., though most other affected buildings appeared to have power restored within seconds of it going out.