Ah, this is starting to sound familiar.
Exactly same symptoms happened to me in a new apartment. High current draw appliances wouldn't work, especially the large oven, washer and dryer.
Turned out whoever was in charge of the electrical distribution had put a load limiter on my line, effectively only allowing a smaller draw of current.
This could be what's happening here, but what confuses me is that everyones power went out when it started.
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