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Friday Morning Blackout Impacts Hundreds Of Thousands In Manhattan And Queens
By
David Cruz
Published Aug 7, 2020
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Candice Choi/AP/Shutterstock
By
David Cruz
Published Aug 7, 2020
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Early risers in northern Manhattan and parts of Queens woke up to no power on Friday morning, as a glitch in Con Edison's transmission system knocked out electricity to three of its networks.
Roughly 187,000 Con Ed customers in Harlem, Upper West Side, and Upper East Side were temporarily without power. In the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, an estimated 77,000 customers also lost power just after 5 a.m.
"We are investigating a problem on our transmission system that caused three networks in Manhattan to lose their electric supply at about 5:13 this morning. The supply has been restored to those networks on the Upper West Side, Harlem and the Upper East Side," Con Edison said in a statement that went out before 6:30 a.m.
Thousands are still without power in Maspeth and Middle Village.
The outage also disrupted subway service to the A, B, C, D, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, N, Q and R lines.
The latest outage comes as Con Edison was already working to restore service for customers following Wednesday's arrival of Tropical Storm Isaias, where wind gusts of up to 70 mph produced the second worst outage in the utility's history (Superstorm Sandy remains at the top spot for worst outage). There are estimates that some customers may not get it until Sunday.
Con Edison's outage map shows some 59,000 customers are currently out of power.
“We know how difficult living without power is. That’s why we’re working around the clock until all customers affected by the storm are safely back in service,” said Matthew Ketschke, senior vice president of Customer Energy Solutions, said in a statement sent out early Friday morning. “Let’s remember to continue to make safety the highest priority and stay away from downed trees and wires until crews can remove them.”
More than 1,650 field Con Edison field workers are getting help from 819 utility workers from Texas, Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin, according to the company. Another 311 workers are expected to assist this weekend.
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con edison
tropical storm isaias
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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