Power is starting to return to a some patches of New York after an abrupt darkness swept over large swaths of Manhattan's West Side on Saturday evening, impacting tens of thousands in the city.
Some 73,000 customers over six networks on Con Edison's local grid lost power just before 7 p.m. local time, said the energy provider's CEO John McAvoy at a press conference. Five of those networks are now restored, he said at about 10:30 p.m. Areas from Hudson River to Broadway are still in darkness.
Around 11 p.m., Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a tweet that about 10,000 customers still don't have power. Con Ed estimated a full restoration by midnight.
Con Ed said a transformer fire in Midtown, at West 64th Street and West End Avenue, likely triggered the blackout that stretched from the West 40s to 72nd Street, and from 5th Avenue to the Hudson River.
Subway cars froze, stranding commuters far from their homes, and a number of local subway lines shut down at one point. Some reported spotty cell phone service with cell towers down. Traffic lights are down in major tourist hubs, with some roads closed.
No injuries have been reported so far, according to Con Ed, and the Police and Fire Departments.
Firefighters are responding to people trapped in elevators, the department said.
St. Luke's Roosevelt Hotel, Times Square, Rockefeller Center also went dark, and Broadway shows were canceled or delayed, sending some actors out to the streets to entertain passersby.
Saturday's blackout falls on an eerie anniversary, the 1977 outage that knocked out power in most of the city for a full day. Lightning had struck power lines on the Hudson River, resulting in looting, vandalism, arson and other criminal activity.
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