A power outage struck the heart of Manhattan on the anniversary of a 1977 blackout— stranding passengers on subways, gridlocking drivers that had to navigate the streets without traffic lights and bringing the curtain down on Broadway shows.
The outage, which stretched 30 blocks from Times Square to the Upper West Side, left around 73,000 customers without power Saturday night for about four hours.
Con Edison CEO John McAvoy said a problem at a substation caused the 6:47 p.m. power failure. Electricity was restored to customers and businesses affected by the outage by around midnight, according to a statement from the utility.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1150207891414147077
McAvoy said the exact cause of the blackout would not be known until an investigation is completed.
The outage stymied subway service throughout the city, affecting nearly every line. New York City’s Emergency Management Department said the A, C, D, E, F, M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains had resumed running in both directions by around 2 a.m. Sunday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no injuries were reported and praised emergency officials for their response to the blackout, which he called “unacceptable.”
“You just can’t have a power outage of this magnitude in this city” Cuomo said. “It is too dangerous, the potential for public safety risk and chaos is too high, we just can’t have a system that does that, it’s that simple at the end of the day.”
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1150183879749361665
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was campaigning on the presidential trail in Waterloo, Iowa, when the power outage struck. His press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, tweeted just before 10 p.m. that de Blasio cut short his Iowa visit and was headed back to the city.
Here's the view from Times Square as a #poweroutage strikes parts of Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side in New York #blackout pic.twitter.com/C99xDNyA4G
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) July 14, 2019
The mayor commended New Yorkers for handling the blackout “with that trademark NYC grit and toughness” in a tweet.
The outage comes on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city without power.
Thousands of people crowded the streets Saturday evening, using their cellphones as flashlights while they tried to stay cool amid the humid July evening, where temperatures hit the low 80s.
For hours before the power flickered back on, doormen stood with flashlights in the darkened entrances of upscale apartment buildings along Central Park West, directing residents up flights of stairs. Police and deployed troopers directed traffic at intersections to the soundtrack of sirens and horns, while people in the neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen took it upon themselves to guide traffic in the absence of stoplights and walking signals.
We're getting reports of power outages in station complexes throughout Manhattan. We're working to identify causes and keep trains moving. More information to come.
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) July 13, 2019
(AP)
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3 Responses
punishment for making a gay parade 2 weeks ago
Not to worry. NYC’s fearless leader (speaking from a barn while campaigning in Iowa) just confirmed that the blackout was the result of a “fire in a manhole cover” on the West Side. Who would have guessed that a 30 inch diameter, 240 lb. hunk of cast iron embedded in the pavement on West End Avenie and 64th Street could burn and take out the entire 235 KV transmission network from 40th Street to Central Park and over to the River. Surely, such a rocket scientists would make a worthy competitor to the Trumpkopf in 2020.
Seems like a tradition here in NYC. Whenever there is a natural disaster or human error of major proportions, the Mayor or top officials are never around. From Lee “out of town” Brown to Bl$$mberg to DeBlasio, etc… the worthless taxpaying peasants are treated like 2nd class citizens.