Massive power outage hits NYC's Upper Manhattan, lightning blamed
MANHATTAN (WABC) -- A brief but widespread power outage had a big impact on Upper Manhattan in New York City early Friday affecting the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Harlem.
Lightning was blamed for the blackout, which impacted 187,068 customers in total: 80,170 in Harlem, 62,745 on the Upper West Side and 44,153 on the Upper East Side.
Con Edison also reported new power outages in Queens impacting approximately 7,000 customers in Middle Village and Woodside.
Power there was restored by 9 a.m. The Manhattan outage happened just after 5:15 a.m., and footage captured by an Eyewitness News camera showed no power on the Upper West Side north of West 72nd Street.
Con Edison said a problem on a transmission system caused three networks in Manhattan to lose their electric supply.
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The power started to come back on shortly before 6 a.m., with most customers restored in about a half hour.
There were pockets that a little more time to restore, a spokesperson said.
There were mass transit disruptions on A, B, C, D, 1, 2 & 3 train service in Manhattan as a result.
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