Power Outage Update

As the center of Zachary moves over Northern Virginia, Southern Maryland and the District of Columbia the number of people without power along the track of the storm exceeds 5 million.

In many areas it will be several days before power can be restored.  While for the most part electricity is still be produced without interruption, the distribution system is mauled by thousands of downed lines, flooded substations, and other damage.

This is essentially the same area that has been experiencing fuel shortages for the the last week. Ordinary fuel supplies have been reduced by at least 50 percent and hoarding has further complicated fuel availability across much of the same region now without power.