Power Restored At Montgomery Mall

Update, 3p.m.: Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey told Patch that the circuit breaker trip was due to an equipment issue at the mall or one of its businesses. While he couldn't say specifically what caused the outage, he said it wasn't a problem from Pepco's end.

Joanna Caputi, a spokeswoman for the mall, said mall representatives haven't yet been told by Pepco what the issue was.

The mall didn't close during the outage, Caputi said. Typically, though, some stores are instructed by their corporate offices to close their gates during power outages as a security issue. "Our food court seemed to be operational the whole time so many of our shoppers just went to the food court and had lunch while they waited it out," Caputi said.

Update, 2:30p.m. The power was restored at Westfield around 2p.m. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the outage, which lasted about two hours.

A few stores remained dark, however, the mall reported on its Twitter page.

At the mall, cars used their headlights as they maneuvered their way through structured parking that had lost its lighting.  "Go back! There's nothing! No power!" Yelled one woman at cars as they entered the parking garage.

Shoppers continued to peruse items inside . The department store remained low-lit and relatively cool. "I'm going to go have a coffee and come back," said shopper Minoo Hadian, who stopped by to shop at her favorite stores, Macy's and Nordstrom. "I'm not going to leave the mall."

Shortly afterward, a cheer went up amongst shoppers as the lights flickered back on.

Original post: If you were planning on going to the today to cool off, you'll need to make other plans.

The mall, located at 7101 Democracy Boulevard, is out of power after a circuit breaker tripped, according to Pepco spokesman Andre Francis and a report by WUSA.

The incident happened shortly before noon, Francis said. A tentative restoration time is estimated at 3p.m.

The mall confirmed the outage on its Facebook page.