The Upper West
Side of the Manhattan borough of New York is dark after a transformer fire
caused a power outage and left businesses without electricity, elevators stuck
and subway cars stalled.
 |
| Billboards in New York's famous Times Square were without power during Saturday's outage. Photo: AP |
The outage comes
on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city
without power.
ABC News reported
on Saturday that subway stations plunged into darkness and the billboards of
Times Square suddenly flicked off as New York’s Manhattan was hit by a power
outage.
Authorities say a
transformer fire caused the power outage and left businesses without
electricity, elevators stuck and subway cars stalled.
About 42,000
customers lost electricity in the early evening, according to the Con Edison
utility.
On social media,
dozens of users posted photos of subway stations bathed in darkness.
“While Con Edison
works to restore power in Manhattan, we encourage everyone to avoid
below-ground subway stations,” New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority
said on Twitter.
Firefighters said
they were responding to numerous requests for help, particularly from people
trapped in elevators.
The cut affected
the western chunk of Manhattan, particularly the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood
and the theaters of Broadway.
Many Broadway
musicals and plays cancelled their Saturday evening shows.
Several cast
members from the show put on an impromptu performance in the street outside the
theater for disappointed audience members.
Some shows
like Frozen were among the Broadway shows to announce it
had cancelled performances.
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