A power failure lasting several hours hit the US metropolis of New York early on Saturday evening (local time). Over 70,000 people in Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side were affected. The utility Con Edison spoke on Twitter of “significant power outages”. The disruption was resolved around midnight (local time), as Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city emergency service tweeted.
The glowing billboards in the famous Times Square suddenly went out. Elevators stood still, traffic lights failed, and some underground stations were also shut down, local media reported. The fire brigade had to move out several times to rescue people from stuck elevators.
The power went out in the Rockefeller Center as well, and in many cases cinema-goers suddenly found themselves completely in the dark. Several shows on Broadway had to be canceled, several artists offered spontaneous performances on the sidewalk in front of the entrance. A concert in Carnegie Hall was canceled, the hall was cleared, and later the singers continued their performance in front of the audience in front of the building.
According to media reports, many shops closed earlier than usual. Others, such as bars and restaurants, kept going despite the darkness.
Mayor de Blasio spoke of a “mechanical problem” in the power grid that triggered the blackout. The power failure was not due to outside interference, he tweeted. “That seems to be something that just went wrong with distributing electricity from one part of the city to another,” he told CNN. The problem can certainly be resolved in a “reasonable time”.
The emergency services reported that a fire and a subsequent explosion of an underground transformer may have caused the blackout.
The blackout came exactly on the 42nd anniversary of the great blackout of 1977, which darkened all of New York and plunged into chaos. Looters and arsonists roamed the city, the police were on duty all the time. (dpa)
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