Power restored in New York after partial blackout. More here:
NEW YORK - A wide swath of New York’s Manhattan borough was plunged into darkness Saturday after a transformer explosion knocked out power to subways, stores and Broadway theaters, but the city’s main utility said it had restored most power within hours.
By midnight, power had been restored to most of the customers who had lost it, said John McAvoy, chief executive of utility Con Edison. More than 73,000 homes and businesses lost power, officials said. A Reuters witness reported hearing an explosion on the Upper West Side around 7 p.m. , and a city Fire Department spokesman said firefighters were on the scene of a transformer fire.
With traffic lights out, cars and taxis jammed intersections as emergency vehicles and fire engines with sirens blaring tried to pass. In some places, civilians stepped in to direct traffic, including one who employed a toy light saber. A New York blackout that crippled the city during a heat wave on July 13, 1977, sparked rioting and looting. Power was not restored until the next day.Memories of the violence during the 1977 blackout spooked some tourists visiting the city, including Dave and Dara Campbell, of Gilbert, Arizona.Cuomo sent 100 State Police officers and some National Guard troops to help with traffic control.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when the outage struck, told CNN said he had spoken with the police commissioner and the deputy commissioner responsible for counterterrorism.Slideshow
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