Response. It was amazing. She took the stage and just went to handle it. If you decide to go back in please do not take the elevator. Reporter across pennsylvania avenue d. C. Government officials calmly evacuated the john Wilson Building that went dark. We experienced the power being out and we were told to evacuate the building and i havent heard any additional news since. Were just waiting on when we can either go back into the building reporter all around downtown emergency vehicles checked out buildings. At the National Academy of science on fifth street one i. T. Worker thought something worse was happening. We were just inside working and the power went out. So we decided to come out to see what was going on. Last time that kind of happened we had an earthquake so reporter oh. Yeah. Reporter on the National Mall tourists were asked to leave darkened museums including the museum of the american indian. We were just sitting down to eat and the fire alarm went off and they notified everybody to evacuate the building. Reporter and here at the dupont metro, austin texas, tourists hiked the long way up the es kaloi lei or the. A gentleman that couldnt get up at all was stuck down there because the elevators are out. These are some of the deepest vail or thes in washington right here. Weve been told. Reporter as you know if youve used this Dupont Circle escalator, its a long way up when you have to walk. Back to you. It is a quad workout. Tom sherwood in Dupont Circle for us. A lot of people wondering now just how a problem in Southern Maryland could impact so many important buildings and offices in d. C. It was just before 1 00 this afternoon when a large piece of equipment crashed to the ground at a substation in mechanicsville. That tripled a Ripple Effect all the way into the district. Jackie bensen live outside pepco headquarters with what pepco is saying now. Jackie . Reporter jim, that Ripple Effect i think rattled a lot of people in this city. Because of the magnitude of the buildings and businesses the business of government that it affected the white house, the state department. We asked pepco about this. We asked them what is in place to ensure that a piece of equipment in Charles County isnt going to be somehow cause something very catastrophic in the district. Sean kelly from pepco had this statement. In washington, d. C. The Power Generation is fed from the outside. So when a fault occurs on a transmission line this size it creates a Ripple Effect that can impact customers tied to the grid. Customers who have a backup system that senses low voltage, which are purposely sense tich and designed to assess risk those systems did their job and switched to backup. What i can tell you from talking to a number of people today on background from some of these large institutions is that they got a chance today to see how well their generators part of their Safety System in the event of a failure, whether its caused by a piece of equipment or something more sinister how well their systems worked and its something theyre looking at. At the pentagon right now, the commander of norad was asked about the power issue. He said hell be looking in to see how backup systems worked today and hell be making sure the redundancy in infrastructure in the Nations Capital is where it needs to be. Students at the university of maryland are tweeting us and posting pictures on our nbc washington facebook page. Theyre showing us the moments the lights went out from the Student Union to a starbucks that was closed because it had no power. Prince georges county bureau chief Tracee Wilkins just broke the news on twitter that power has been restored to the campus. He shes got the latest now. Reporter power has fully been restored all over the university of maryland and there are a lot of students who are looking at their microwaves thinking what am i going to eat tonight if this thing does not start working . Well youve got your power back. A lot has been happening in the Student Union where we found one of the students trapped in an elevator earlier today when the power went out. Let me show you what it looked like. These were the firefighters as they left the Student Union after helping to get that student out. They had about half a dozen calls throughout the university. Good news is no injuries in any of this. We were seeing dark classrooms here computers not working, everything because there was absolutely no power. When we talked to students on campus, heres what they had to say about where they were when the lights went out. My computer and phone are almost dead and i have two tests tomorrow. Its all on like that stuff. At first i thought it was just a little outage far second. Then all of a sudden the alarms started going off. So, you know all of us were evacuated. I was really hoping my class would get canceled because its a twohour lecture all on power point. So i was on my way to class and my friend texted me and said i got to class and theres no light and its canceled. Reporter the president of the university actually closed the university at 2 00 p. M. And its going to remain closed for the rest of the evening. But the good thing about that power being back on is that now so much of what these kids need to study is actually online so they can get a lot of that work done they were afraid they would not have an opportunity to get done here at the university of maryland. Theyre also saying they should have hot water by the end of this evening. More coming up on news4 at 6 00. Back to you in the studio. You can see more of the impact from todays power problems on your cell phone if it still has power. This is at the National Portrait gallery. We even show you how some people had fun with social media. Search outage on our nbc washington app. And we continue to follow a developing story that we first told you about an hour ago. Crews are testing the escalators at the bethesda metro station, but its still not open to customers. Trains began bypassing the station after the escalators went out during the rhee regionwide power outage. Now that the power is back up the escalators are running but metro wants to make sure its operating correctly. The escalators are operating correctly before allowing passengers back inside the station. This comes after reports of smoke in the tunnel this morning at the same station. Montgomery county fire tweeted that there was smoke in the tunnel between metro bethesda rather and medical center. A metro spokesperson says crews found and removed an arcing insulator from the tracks. Trains were single tracking but normal service was quickly restored. Turning to storm team 4. Showers, possibly a few rumbles of thunder rolling through the dmv tonight. Veronica johnson is tracking the rain for us now. Hi v. J. That i am. Keeping a close eye on storm team 4 radar where we saw a little lightning off to the west. I66 pretty good moderate rainmaking its way eastward in the next couple minutes, from millwood and huntley east towards marshall middleburgh and halfway in the next couple minutes. Earlier i saw a little lightning. Not seeing that right now. But it extend towards big spring and hamburg in virginia headed toward areas like luray, Wakefield Manor in the next 15 to 20 minutes. Good thing with all the Power Outages this was not a day in the middle of summer. No high heat but plenty warm 70 in d. C. 70 in fredericksburg 73 in frederick, maryland. Well see the temperatures come down. Mid60s with showers at 11 00. More rain and much cooler. Ill show you how long well stay locked into this wet pattern. Once that rain moves in. Those who knew him called him a good kid. Tonight the search is on for the person who gunned down a 16yearold outside an apartment complex here along 37th street in southeast d. C. News4s pat collins is there. Reporter he was 16 years old. He was getting ready to go back to high school. He was shot and killed here on 37th street. A street thats no stranger to violence. When officials boast about the Economic Development in the city of washington its not likely theyll show pictures of the 300 block of 37th street southeast. Sure the gleaming Washington NationalsBaseball Academy is here. But a half block away you dont have to go far to find a neighborhood in decay where shoes in the sky draped over power lines mark the violent history here. This is the death zone. So many innocent kids getting killed around here. And they aint doing nothing about it. Theyre not. Reporter i see all these shoes on the wires around here. Whats that represent . One of the kids been killed around here. Reporter it was on these steps that luke holt was shot and killed yesterday. He was 16 years old. He was planning to go to Coolidge High School tomorrow. Never done nothing to nobody. I just hope they find who did it. Reporter luke holt lives in northeast, but he grew up on 37th street and yesterday he came here to hang out with some friends. They were up on the steps when it happened. Neighbors say a burgundy car came down the street then a man got out, pulled a gun and fired off six shots and luke holt fell to the ground. Ive known this baby since he was 5. Hes a good kid. You could ask him to take your groceries in the house. He help you. He was a good kid. Reporter coming up at 6 00 well talk to a woman who came to lukes aid after he was shot. She says she moved here from baltimore because she thought it would be safer. Wait until you hear what she has to say coming up at 6 00. Back to you. Pat, thank you. This just in. Its going to cost 1. 5 million to replace those two fire trucks destroyed in yesterdays massive warehouse fire in capitol heights. Fire Officials Say the fire fueled by heavy wind spread so fast that it overtook the fire trucks. Styrofoam containers behind the roofing warehouse on ashwood drive caught fire. Two firefighters suffered some minor burns. Fire investigators are still looking into the cause. Loudoun county has built its own miniature version of a metro rail silver line station in leesburg to keep you safe. News4s Scott Mcfarlane learned the county has been installing tracks and fencing and a third rail system. The plan is to train firefighters on how to respond to fire and smoke emergencies in the rail system. There are still a few lines years, rather until the silver line expands through loudoun, but the chief says he wants to start training his hundreds of firefighters as soon as possible especially after recent emergencies. The incident in january provied more of a realism that this is it can happen. Its not if but when. Tonight at 6 00 Scott Mcfarlane shows us how the model train track system works and he explains how an where other Fire Departments train to handle smoke and fire emergencies on the rails. New developments in an awful tragedy on maryland eastern shore. What relatives are saying about the family of eight found dead inside the home. New plans for an Elementary School promised in Princess Anne. Why parents feel they were lied to. Reporter not one, not two, not three, 11 swastikas painted on the walls of this synagogue. Well show you the surveillance is taking shape, bringing media and Technology Together for more people. Together is more wifi access in more places. Its a home you control with the touch of a finger. Its reimaging tv to give more people more choices. Its bringing technology and people together in ways you never thought possible. Comcast and time warner cable. Together is better for more people. Scott mcfarlane at the live desk. Wisconsin salve shut down in chevy chase and Montgomery County after a hitandrun. Police say the person hit was a pedestrian and was an offduty Police Officer en route to the hospital for his injury s to be checked. The drive fled the scene. You can see the Traffic Camera there just north of the Friendship Heights pret meth row station on wisconsin. Northbound and southbound shut down. A hitandrun. An update coming shortly. Im Scott Mcfarlane. We are hearing from the company that supplied power to the house where eight people, a single father and his seven children were found dead inside. Authorities tell us they all died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning from a generator that was being used after the power was cut off. News4s chris gordon has our story tonight. Reporter family and friends gathered to grieve rodney todd and his seven children who died of accidental Carbon Monoxide poisoning from a generator he ran in the kitchen of his home after his electricity was shut off. My brother is gone. My nieces and nephews are gone. Thats what they were to me. And i just cant put a grasp on it. Like hes gone and im not ever going to see him walk through that door no more. Reporter Family Members say they didnt know if mr. Todd was having financial problem, why the power had been turned off. It appears the windows were closed and there was no vent lags. The bodies were found in sleeping positions throughout the house. Rodney todd had been raising his kids by himself the last three years. We have bits of details how long they lived in the home. They moved in november of last year. Reporter electric service was discontinued last year at the request of the we apologize. Were having some technical difficulty there. Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity is blasting Rolling Stone magazine for its response to the uva controversy. The National Fraternity released a statement demanding full accountability for everyone involved in the report that wrongly accused its uva chapter of gangrape. Rolling stone has retracted the report and apologized but the reporter and her editors have not been fired. Phi kappa psi officers say theyre evaluating options beyond lawsuit the uva chapter plans to pursue. Developing story out of ill wril seven people are dead after a small plane crashed in the central part of the state. Relatives say the group was flying home from the ncaa championship game when their plane went down in bloomington about a mile from the airport. Among the victims deputy Athletic Director and associate head coach for the Mens Basketball Team for Illinois State university. Investigators believe heavy fog may have played a role. Deliberations in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will go into a second day. The jury called it a day just about half an hour ago. So far the judge says they passed two questions. In closing arguments, the defense argued tsarnaevs older brother masterminded the attack. If found guilty he could face the death penalty. A guilty verdict would trig err penalty phase and likely get under way next week. With a fiery speech and a promise to defeat the washington machine, senator rand paul has made it official. He is now running for the white house. Paul launched his 2016 white house bid during a rally in in louisville kentucky today, and he came out swinging criticizing both republicans and democrats for driving up the National Debt and reducing personal liberties. I have a message a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We have come to take our country back. Paul is the second to announce. Ted yoouz is the other. Arizona senator john mccain says he still has a lot of work to do and hell run for reelection in 2016. Kelly odonnell broke the news. Mccain, whos turning 80 says voters shouldnt worry about his age. I say watch me. I say watch me. Take a look. T my 18hour days. Take a look at the hearings we have. Take a look at my legislative accomplishments. Listen im just getting started. John mccain is currently serving his fifth term in the senate. He was the republican president ial nominee in 2008. Weve just learned that secretary of state john kerry will meet with his cuban counterpart at the summit of americas in panama later this week. It will be the highest level official meeting between a u. S. And cuban official in more than half a century. Nbc news has also learned that the state department is expected to recommend soon that cubas designation as a state sponsor of terror be lifted. The designation has been one of the roadblocks to the reopening of embassies in washington and havana. A special tribute downtown as the post office revealed its latest forever stamp featuring the late poet maya angelou. First Lady Michelle obama and Oprah Winfrey were there for the dedication today. The postmaster general says angelou left a stamp on everything and everyone she touched adding thatitis only fitting theres one in recognition of her lifes work. At the ceremony ohm ra read one of her favorite angelou passages. Lying here thinking last night how to find my soul a home where waters not thirsty and blood loaf is not stone. I came up with one thing, and i dont believe im wrong, that nobody but nobody can make it out here alone. Angelou passed away last may at the age of 86. And we want to go back now to chris gordons piece on the family tragedy in Princess Anne county. Heres the latest from chris. Reporter family and frien