I found this:

A major power outage at USPTO headquarters occurred Tuesday, December 22, resulting in damaged equipment that required the subsequent shutdown of many of our online and IT systems. This includes our filing, searching, and payment systems, as well as the systems our examiners across the country use. We are working diligently to assess the operational impact on all our systems and to determine how soon they can be safely brought back into service. Status updates and alternative filing methods can be found on our systems alert page (www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/) as they become available, as well as on our Facebook (www.facebook.com/uspto.gov) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/uspto) accounts.