37,000 customers are without power. The word that we got from the speaker and from other officials within the last hour in new york city that there was some sort of explosion, a transform he explosion on the Upper West Side of manhattan. And officials are still trying to deal with that. In the meantime, there are people stuck inside of elevators, trapped there in the subways. The lincoln central had to be shut down. You see times squaer right now, busy on any given saturday afternoon. It would appear on the lefthand side of the screen, the west side of the city, i want you to talk to the irony of this. This happening on july 13th. Some 42 years after the big, big blackout in 1977 to the exact date. Well, you cannot write a story like this. I saw it before this incident happened, remembering that moment in new york city in the 1970s and how scary that was for folks. So it is ironic and weird and a little twilighty, that it is happening so many years later. I have another update if you want me to give you more information. So the latest information i have is, i just got this. 38,000 customers without, including lincoln center, st. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital center, on west 59th street in Hells Kitchen, Roosevelt Hospital is reporting that power is lost but they are operating on a backup generator. They have no air conditioning, power, and no elevator service. The Parks Department in manhattan is saying it has lost all power but theyre on backup generators. The Port Authority is reporting that power went out at penn station and was immediately restored. There are no reports of evacuations or injuries at this time. And just so people have a little content. How big of a hospital is st. Lukes hospital in hells can i haven . It is a major hospital. It takes up almost half a city block. It is a hospital that serves the big swath of the west side. A very important place. And just a key place for the neighborhood and the west side of manhattan. It is located between 58th and 59th facing 10th avenue. And it is an important place. Please continue to hang on with us with what appears to be a major power outage. This is going on some 90 minutes. It is a typical summer day. There are a lot of people who rehigh on electricity. Kathy park, a lot of people are out and about. I was at work the same time you were at 30 rock. I think it was around 6 45 in the middle of nightly news when the power went out on the seventh floor. I was at my desk. And immediately, you kind of wonder whats going on. And then on the speaker, a couple minutes afterwards. We were figuring out exactly what the situation was. What is it like outside . Are there a lot of people in the streets . We did see some lights out as well. A lot of traffic lights out. I was only able to get a brief glimpse of the seasonable outside. Clearly this is times square right now. Were at 49th and 5th. My window kind of faces the 50th side of the street. He just noticed the Traffic Signals were out. People are out and about. No chaos whatsoever. I know, avoid taking the elevators. A lot of people are stuck. I was trying to figure out how to get here because im on the seventh floor. What are you hearing from, i imagine a lot of your constituents, folks are calling in, contacting your office. Probably you at this point. Do you get a sense that everybody as far as you know and responsible for are safe and sound right now . It seems like everyone is calm. Theyre just looking for answers. So if you look on facebook, im hearing directly from constituents, asking for information and updates, which is why i called con edison trying to figure out what was going on. As soon as we have anything else, well hear. Im hearing, you know, small businesses, restaurants. Someone sent me a shot from a karaoke bar. When it happens in a denily populated city, people get concerned. The most important thing is to stay calm and get Accurate Information out. Speaking of that, lets give at this time importance that it needs right now. It is manhattan. Whenever anything goes wrong in manhattan, we all get a little alarmed by all of this. Are you able to say right now that we have no indication that this might have been something that was done on purpose . Or that there was any sort of terrorist link to this explosion at this station . I wouldnt be. I dont have any information on that. It wouldnt be appropriate for me to give conjecture on Something Like that. But could have been ed is on the scene. Theyre mobilizing their response and we have no indication of that. I havent heard that from the fdny. But you can understand why a lot of people would immediately want to make sure thats not the case. I think it is important for everyone to stay calm. We want to make sure, right now it is localized to the 30 blocks on the west side. We want the customers and new yorkers to get power back as quickly as possible. Thats what well focus on. I left the city about three hours ago and now im heading back to make sure i can reassure the folks at home that before i get back, it will be fixed. Good luck getting back into the city. With a lot of traffic hammers not working, it will be even more difficult on this day. I appreciate your time. Appreciate your insight. If you do find out anything more, please let us know. I imagine with so many people out of power on a warm day, so many elderly residents in new york city. This is possibly a life threatening situation, isnt it . Well, right now we want to make sure that anyone who needs help gets help. It seems to me that Emergency Services have mobilized for the area. And right now im not hearing of any injuries or anything super serious. We want to make sure it continues that way. All right. Thanks to the speaker, the City Council Speaker there. I appreciate your time. The update that im getting here in the newsroom in our studio from the Fire Department, they said they are addressing the spike in call volume. They stay loss of power is from fifth nou to the hudson river. Thats about a mile across. And west 40s to 72nd. So every 20 blocks is a mile in new york city. So roughly a mile and a half that way. So it is impacting a lot of people. A question to the control room. I know we have a couple folks on the line. Do we have all right. Well get to those in a little bit. I know the mayor of new york city is in waterloo at this hour and he addressed the situation some moments ago. Well get to that. I want to get to our friend, Evan Siegfried who is here with us and he lives on the Upper West Side. Take me through your experience, what you see and heard and how is it looking now . Around 6 50, i heard pop. And then every bit of power went out in my part. My dog looked a little disturbed and then went back to sheep. And it was sort of a very weird thing. And then you hear your neighbors come out to ask one another what was going. On i pulled up twitter. Thankfully my cell phone still works. And i saw that there was some sort of power outage in the west side. And in midtown manhattan. Yeah. And no flickering, no nothing. I imagine a lot of people are out on the street . No flickering, no nothing. No indication of when well have power back. Weve really only been getting updates from speaker johnson, whom you just spoke with on twitter. Hes been doing a very good job of that. But it is really, from what ive seen. People are in a fairly cheery mood and talking about prior blackouts. Talking about when do you think stores will be giving out free beer and food . It is one of those things that do bring new yorkers together. Why dont you hang on there for a moment. I do have with me the weekend anchor for nbc nightly news. Kate, i was watching my story air on your newscast. And then the lights went out. I was hoping wasnt something i said. Yeah. So i anchor the broadcast normally on sundays. Today is saturday. We are on the air at 6 30 as well. Our studio is behind where you are right now in 30 rockefeller plaza. The backup generator went on but unfortunately, not enough light for us to go on television as far as the lights. Luckily my mic was still on so we had the picture and thats what i did. So people on the east coast might have noticed that suddenly they didnt see me anymore that you they did hear my voice. Did i walk over to your studio. I heard we were doing news with a little flashlight. Luckily we had another studio thats rigged up with more backup generators. Take shot again. You can sense, not to make it about us, it gives you a sense. All of this this would all be lit up. Yeah. And this was one of our first indications, ohoh, something went wrong. Its like when youre at home and the lights all go out for a second. If you have a generator, the backup lights come on but it is not as many as that. The hallway is completely dark. I dont know if you have the picture that i put up on twitter but you can see the studio that i put up, just pitch black. Were lucky. Were still on television. Were still able to talk. We have generators. Imagine the many in apartment buildings where it is be lit up. I have a friend in town from denver. Bought tickets to hamilton months ago. She just sent me the video of the crowd standing outside the theater because they lost power at that theater so they had everybody go out. They havent canceled the show yet. And i know this is a minor inconvenience but think about it. For tourist thats come to that place, times square, and they bought these theater tickets months in advance, theyre very hard to get. Theyre standing on the street. A whole lot of shows on broadway that are affected. I want to be honest with the viewers in the meantime. You may be hearing us calling for different shots and different pieces of video and such, we work here in manhattan and were impacted by this. We cant just pull up. And were having a hard time with our editing capabilities to get the stuff on tv right now. Even though we have the generators, were victims to this as well. The image you saw just a moment ago was from sixth avenue outside the studio where people are already out there for a street fest. But theyre out there now because they cant be inside. New yorkers are pretty resilient, i would say. I heard you talking about for the elderly, sick, this could be a crisis. For people on the subway, it could be a very Big Inconvenience or stuck in an elevator. Most new yorkers will get a little hot, go outside and call it saturday night. And for once, well get to know our neighbors. What do you make of this being the 42nd anniversary to the day of the major blackout in 1977 . It is an eerie coincidence. As the hours go by, it will become cheer, i dont know when our reporting is at the motel. A transformer fire . A transformer fire. Is it just that . Or is there more to it . Well to have wait for more information. The way you described on it twitter, it was a loud boom . Yeah. It was a popping noise. It didnt sound like an explosion and im no expert but it didnt sound like anything that was in any way intentional. It sounded like a transformer going. Something happening. And then everything went out. Was it fairly frightening . Or it was just one week after fourth of july. Were used to hearing pops. It was closer to a balloon popping. If it reached up here, that means it was a pretty big short or whatever happened to a transform ferry thats what happened. Just rae minder, what we are covering right now. This has been what appears to be a pretty big power outage in manhattan. It has impacted the subways, the famed lincoln performance center, it has impacted movie theaters all up and down from midtown to the Upper West Side. Tom winter reporting that a senior official with direct knowledge of the matter says it appears to have been caused by a transformer. The west side of manhattan. 54th street and west end avenue for many of the folks who know manhattan to that end. Youre getting this from the mta. Theyre getting Power Outages in station complexes throughout manhattan. More information to come. Were going well into two hours. Yeah. It was about 6 40 eastern time. Youre just seeing a lot of people confused and not knowing what to do. Especially tourists. Theyre not from here. Theres no air conditioning and it is getting hotter and hotter in the studio where were sitting so it will be invent. Earlier the Power Company said they would try to get it fixed. I have to say that con ed hand really said much about what is going on. The famous marquis there, radio city music hall is faurlly lit up on a night like this. It is not at the moment. Im not sure who was even appearing at radio city music hall, if folks in the control room can take a long. But there are a lot of these performance thats were canceled as a result. Right at 7 00 is when hamilton, many of the shows, specially on a weekend night like this, would be popping. Saturday night. Learningon central, the same thing. A lot of these would be populated by people. Right now the number has gone up. Were told at least 42,000 customers are without power in new york city. As you look at that, 42,000 customers. Each number probably represents a household of two or four. So you have tens of thousands without power right there in new york city, in the middle of the evening. And you can see the impact that it is having right now. Weve been watching that picture on the left of the screen. You can see the lights appear to be out on the will board that normally carries the lion king. It is usually lit up across from my old gma studios. And the billboard as well is usually lit up as well. A lot of people are on the streets and there is a lot of traffic. Right now it is particularly bad. Ive seen regular citizens trying to play police and when he said traffic flow. It is certainly snarling midtown manhattan. For people who dont know the geography here. Manhattan is an island. One of five burroughs of new york city. This is impacting apparently midtown and parts of the Upper West Side. I just talked to friends of mine other are downtown. Theyre fine. The power is on. Were going to take a quick break and continue our rolling coverage of this blackout that has taken place in the city of manhattan. The city of new york. It started that 6 45. At this hour, there are a lot of people still without power. Many people who are trapped in elevators. 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At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Good day, everyone. I am here at msnbc headquarters on a saturday evening. It is turning out to be a very busy saturday. Here are the things were following. Youre looking at a live picture in new yorks times square. There appears to be a blackout that has gone on for nearly two hours. It started at 6 45 eastern time. Were told it was because of a transformer fire and now you have tens of thousands of people without power. Take a look at the big screen. Tropical storm barry has picked up speed a little bit. Thats the good news. It is still bringing a whole lot of gulf moisture, as you can see. Hundreds of miles coming in from the lower part of louisiana. New orleans getting a lot of rain. The storm will be with us for quite some time and then making its way to the northeast. You can see where there are some flash flood watches and warnings at this hour. If we continue to turn around, you will see the other story that were following. Normally, all of this behind here. That you see here. Were victims to this blackout here in manhattan, like so many people. We heard a boom about 6 45 eastern time. And then the lights went out for a quick seconds. You can see, were the lucky ones. There are many who may be stuck in a subway or elevators. Our own kathy park has made her way outside where there are many traffic lights not working and city officials have been out there on the street. What are you seeing . I am here right here in front of 30 rock. I have to point out it is a little loud because we have Emergency Responders responding to different situations happening across the city. Were told a lot of people are stuck on elevators because of the blackout. We were also a victim of this as well. Right over here to my left is 30 rock. Typically the sign is all lit up. But also radio city hall is right here as well and ill notice, it is typically bright red and blue but all of that is out. Traffic signals are out. We have nypd on the seasonable right now. I do want to point out where we are standing. Just a couple hours ago, there was a street fair that occupied the street. So now theyre lifting that up. Officers have moved in. Most likely because of this ongoing power outage. But were told from an official that this transformer fire started on 54th and west end avenue. That was the source of this power outage. Right now, Law Enforcement has been fanned out across the city to kind of respond to any specific emergencies. We had an opportunity to talk to some folks out here. They said they were staying at a hotel a couple blocks away when everything went black. They heard someone on the intercom and thats when they decided to come out. They werent told to evacuate but they decided to come out and walk around the city. As far as the mood goes, it is not chaotic. Everyone is going about their business. This is summertime in manhattan. Youre going to have a lot of people out and about and it is typically a busy scene and it is the case right now. You have to factor in that power outage. Yeah. Were panning the camera over. Were kind of the spectacle right here as we do this live shot. Most people are taking this in stride. It is kind of tricky to watch the traffic lights straight up and down the avenue of the americas where you are. I assume most of the people were seeing are tourists. A lot of people were trying to go to the broadway shows that are taking place just a couple blocks away. Might not be able to right now. Reporter thats right. So our own kate snow is saying that one of her friends was actually in the middle of hamilton. A very popular show here on broadway when the blackout happened and they were told to leave the building. They dont know what will happen with the rest of the show. They havent canceled the show just yet. Everyone is in a Holding Pattern until the lights come back on. I this mention, you can see me rolling up my sleeves. It is really hot here in the studio. I dont have a jacket or anything. Mayor de blasio is tweeting, Emergency Management is working with agencies to respond to Power Outages in manhattan due to a manhole fire earlier this evening. Disruption is significant. It is the sort of update that i dont think most new yorkers who are impacted wanted to hear. Im sure they wanted to hear that the lights will be back on in a matter of time. The mayor of new york is campaigning for president in waterloo, iowa, saying that it was caused by a manhole fire. And the disruption is significant. Significant. What does that mean . Were told from the Fire Department and con ed that from fifth avenue in manhattan, over to the hudson river, several, several avenues and several blocks over, it is impacted. North to 70th street before the a mile and a half. It is impacted by this blackout. Con ed is saying 42,000 customers are without power. That could mean tens of thousands of additional people who are actually being impacted by this power outage. When you look at that, realize that it is probably a lot more people impacted. Then you have many of the tourists. People in hotels and elevators. People in the subways. So many people are being impacted by this. We were speaking with the speaker of the new York City Council a little earlier today. And he mentioned to me on air that st. Lukes hospital which is about a block wide is right now working generators. Thats an important note. That is a huge hospital. In the Hells Kitchen area of new york city and no doubt has hundreds more people there when it come to employees and patients. But they say that they are right now operating on backup generators. Weve seen many movie theaters that have been evacuated of this. The famed lincoln central, Performing Arts Center would be busy on a saturday night of it is now closed. Just to give a full picture of exactly what is going on at 8 30 eastern time, as we have the power outage. Have you seen a lot of rescue officials out there . Utility officials out there . I cant say that i have. There have been some ambulance thats have come through. We saw a fire truck that passed through. We cant say for sure if they were responding to an emergency related to this power outage. I can tell that you several nypd officers have kind of created this perimeter around 30 rock. I was just in 30 rock. It was a scary situation. It is something that i experienced. If you are in this situation, avoid the elevators. A lot of people didnt know what was going on. They took elevator and got stuck. Outside, it is a saturday night. A lot of people are out and about and these folks are tourists. Were panning over to them right now. The scene is not very tense or chaotic. One family said they were visiting new york city. The heights went out. Someone came on the system and told them. They decided to come out of the hotel and just explore the city. So everyone is taking this minute by minute and theyre monitoring the situation via social media. The numbers seem to be growing as far as outages. When we found out about this, were told that it was about 20,000 around 6 45 p. M. It seemed like the number continued to grow. You have to think about how many miles of land scape in a very dense city right now without power. Sunset was at 8 27 p. M. That means the lights will be very, very important for many people and a lot of people in manhattan who are in the dark as the summer goes down. This was one of two socalled manhattan, when the buildings and the grid aligned with the sunset. A lot of people were probably going out to see the sunset anyway. It was rained out in may of this year. Right now, can you hear me . Where are you . Whats the situation where you are . I hear rescue crews all over the place. Where are you . Can you hear me . Sorry. I cant. I am at 64th and west end avenue. There are a bunk of fire trucks that just drove by. Currently at the 101 west end. Where one of the transformer fires broke out. Theres a lot of people standing around. People with dogs who are standing around hook at the building. I tried to talk to some of the policemen. No one has given me any information on what exactly is going on. Im looking at a fire truck. Im looking at a fire truck, like one of the smaller trucks. It looks like they were trying to pull out some flashlights. It looks like they may be going toward the elevator. There may be people stuck inside the elevator. Im not getting any information. Were you there when the lights went out . Could you their boom . Reporter i actually live across the street. I was sleeping. I work the overnight shift. I woke up and my dog was freaking out because there was no air conditioning. I started going online. And there was a blackout and i start seeing everyone a little confused. All the lights are out. People were driving slowly through the fourway. Okay. Hang in there for us. I want to bring attention to what is an interesting scene for me. I dont know if im parsing it too much. If you look straight down that canyon, thats broadway. Seventh avenue, right . There in new york city. You kind of see off in the distance, the lights appear to be out on the buildings in the back of that screen right there. Which would not be a normal thing. I believe there is, the Manhattan Hotel is right there. The Times Square Hotel is located nearby. Also located nearby. To the left of the screen. Several broadway shows. And im just getting this to me right now. Canceled. The lion king, aladdin, frozen the musical. I can go on and on and on. And of course, hamilton. Just imagine if you finally got tickets to hamilton and it was canceled as a result. As we continue to zoom in, well to go Hells Kitchen where Ryon Richardson is joining me on the phone. Can you hear me . I can. Whats the situation over there . I am at home right now. My apartment looks out over 48th street. Sort of dead in the heart of Hells Kitchen between tenth and 11th avenue. I can see west to the cruise terminal and then east into the theater district which you were just describing and it is an eerie scene. Of course, all three lights are out and you have a limited number of commercial establishments. As i look out over times square area hotels. My guess is theyre operating on generators. At least at ground level. There is still power sparsely peppered through the block here. But by and large, everything is absolutely dark. And it is, night is falling. The sun is setting. While we had sunlight pouring in earlier, to sort of provide lighting and the lights were out. That will soon subside. It is turning into more of an eerie scene. There is certainly to pandemonium. Now that the sun has started to go down in new york city, were receiving the twohour mark. We believe this took place about 6 45 eastern time here in new york city when a loud boom could be heard. We later found out, it was the rule of a transformer exploding on the west side of manhattan. Since then, despite plenty of crews being out there, it has not been fixed. From wnbc, the Investigative Reporter is joining us on the line. Jonathan, what are you hearing from your sources . Reporter we spoke with a senior Fire Department official and a senior nypd official a short time ago. And there were two locations in manhattan that are causing this disruption. The first on 49th street. There is a manhole disruption that then spread. And there was a second incident at 64th street. So there were two locations where there were outages, transformers went. And that caused this outage that stretches from the 40s to about 72nd street. Fifth nu. It runs up the entire west side. So there are sections of the west side that are without power. And many of the west side subway lines are not running at this hour. And according to the Fire Department. Now, the fire officials tell us theres no one they have reported trapped in a train right now. But they do have multiple reports and calls about people trapped in elevators and Fire Department officials are responding to those locations. There are many buildings in midtown that do have backup generators. You will see some buildings with lights on and some do not. At the dont believe it will be out for a tremendous amount of time. They believe it is something they can get their articlms aro but they dont know when all power will be restored. So thats the latest. It they were saying there was a manhole explosion and then the Fire Department and plarlt saying there was a second incident at 54th street and west end. While you were talking, i dont know if the studio lights is an indication of power gaining back on. But as you were speaking, within the last few moments, he with saw all of this stuff light up. You may have been watching when i showed you that we were suffering from this power outage. You can see the difference is night and day. Kathy park is outside the building. If power is restored, it would be restored to the street lights, the marquis, radio city music hall, as well as the marquis. If we have that shot with kathy, im curious to see it. Those building dozen appear to be fairly dark. Lets see the situation out there. Behind me is radio city hall. Clearly it is an indicator of the impact. Typically it is glowing and bright red. It looks like most of the building is experiencing the power out an. We have generators that kicked in shortly after the outage. I was in there not too long ago. I was part of the blackout as well. So a lot of the building has been affected. This has been a widespread power outage. You mentioned a lot of the broadway shows have been canceled. Tell me your name again. I understand you were about to enter to watch a show and what happened . Yeah. We were going to see mean girls and as soon as we got the door to the room shut, lights went out. We walked out and waited about 20 minutes and they finally cancelled the show. It would be too hot in the theater if they get the lights back on. What were your thoughts . Everyone is trying to figure it out. Im a retired fire chief. Theyll be busy doing a lot of stuff and theres nothing they can do. It is all the Power Company. Dont use your phones incase you dont need help. Youve been out Walking Around the city. Some of the new yorkers, it is just another day. It is amazing to me the different spots. It looks like the new york people have hung out pretty well and the rest are going with the flow. Reporter as far as traffic with the city, are you noticing gridlock . It is manhattan. It was pretty crazy. A couple shows back to back. Side to side. People out in the street. It was pretty congested but it seems to be running pretty smooth. Thank you for talking to us. So it seems like a lot of people have been impacted by this. By this outage. And well continue to monitor the situation here and let you know if we have an update. Right outside the studio, you can see radio city as well as the nbc marquis and those traffic lights are not working at this hour. Heres an update. Con ed is saying the power will be restored by 10 30 eastern time tonight. So roughly, about four hours after all of this took place. If jonathan dienst is still with us from wnbc, one thing of major concern. You have st. Lukes hospital on the west side in Hells Kitchen. We got word about an hour or so ago that it is on backup generators. How big of a deal would you say that is for st. Lukes . Well, it is probably not a big deal for people at this time with the backup generators. The question is can they do it without the subways running . You would assume they would be rerouted to other hospital thats have full power . With the traffic and congestion, i would be most concerned about the situation where time is of the essence and can the emergency vehicles get through. That would be something that Emergency Management would be working on to make sure that there are enough union to get out and respond to any emergencies in need. The Fire Department telling us regarding people stuck in elevators, that they are responding to many calls like that on the west side of manhattan. But if its accurate, 10 30 would be the time that con ed estimates they can get the power back on. If market is being felt at this hour. Especially now the sun has gone down. Do you not suspect any sort of foul play related to this, but you cant help but get around the irony of this. Being on the 42nd anniversary to the exact date. Back in 1977. Of that massive power outage that took place. Those are some of the images. It cost nearly 300 million in lost revenue for new york city way back then. Quite a contrast there. That one lasted well over a day. Look, we spoke with top Law Enforcement and intelligence officials. What is happening now appears to be the result of two incidents. One, at 49th street, some sort of manhole explosion and fire there. And then a second trans former at 64th street and west m. That there is nothing to suggest at all deliberate acts. The electrical appears to be the cause and they expect to get it quickly. Perhaps by 10 30. We also had a blackout about ten years ago. The power went out and that lasted several hours again because of a power surge. The amount of energy being used. Con ed does an amazing job keeping the lights on and the power on on most days. But unfortunately, these two events taking place on 64th street and 49th street, causing the power to be out. The mayor in iowa, hes been briefing the press regularly on twitter and saying theyre doing their best to get the power on. Again, it is impacting more than 40,000 customers. That doesnt mean people. That means customers. Where there could be multiple people in the dwelling or office buildings, et cetera. From the 40s to the 70s, to the river, they expect power to be restored by 10 30. You dont cover utilities but with that in mind, how would they consider a hotel . Is that kerd a customer in itself . I know a lot of these hotels have generators. So that would be a customer. And then the number of people in that hotel. So yes. My understanding is you would have a lot more people than customers. So this could be into the hundreds of thousands of people there. And you do get that reminder when you realize the mass size of the power outage in new york. Several of the broadway shows which would be operating to the left of your screen right there including the lion king, hamilton, frozen the musical, aladdin, aint too proud. Theyre all shut down as a result of this. Radio city music hall, which we have pictures of, did not have a show today. Lionel richie is due to perform there on the 17th. Just south where this is taking place, at Madison Square garden tonight. At 34th street. Jennifer lopez is in concert. As far as were told right now, that show is still going on as planned. Our producer is joining us right now. Were going to be wrapping up shortly. Have we noticed any change at all from your Vantage Point . I think the biggest thing is it is significantly darker. Were right here in front 30 rock and everything is darker. Typically signage is lit up. And the iconic city hall is glowing in red. You can see right now, even the entire building. It looks like the power is out there. But we are really in the heart of manhattan. And there is a lot of activity on any given day. You mentioned broadway shows. Restaurants. I want to point out. This is something weve been hearing and seeing. Ambulances coming through the area, responding to various emergencies. Can your frag turn the lights off and pan around . I want to get an idea of how dark this city is turning into at this point. Sixth avenue is very lit up. Reporter we can give it a shot. Ronny, can you show us how dark it is . Well move a little away from the lights to show you exactly how dark it is without the help of our bright tv lights. This is what an average saturday night looks like here in manhattan. This is sixth. And you will notice. There arent a lot of cars. A lot more foot traffic than normal. I havent notice any issues with the foot traffic. There were officers standing by. There was a street fair blocking this area for several hours throughout the day. So these barricades were up for that. Really, were noticing that the situation is relatively calm. We had an opportunity to talk to folks from out of town and theyre staying at nearby hotels and they had plans. Theyre just spending their time exploring the city by foot and hoping the lights come back. It looks like it will be around 10 30. Ill going to double down and ask if your photographers can turn the lights off so we can really hammer home this darkness in manhattan. If you dont mind. Reporter okay. So ronny, if you could do us a favor and turn off the lights to show how dark it is on the streets. Well pan over here. This is 30 rock. We wont go on the street because the traffic lights arent working right now. People do want to be careful. A lot of the traffic lights are not working and people are darting out into the street. A potentially dangerous situation. There is not a lot of light except the hotdog carts. The traffic lights are not lit up. The emergency crews are going through and through the streets and hoping that people will know how to yield for that. For these fourway stops. A potentially dangerous situation. The lights are now down and the sun has set in new york. Luckily there are many emergency officials out there in force at this point. Our thanks to you, ronny and thanks to kathy for doing something that i do know that photographers within their innate self cannot allow themselves to not provide proper lighting. So i appreciate him doing that. I wanted to bring home how dark the situation there is in new york city. We are set for the top of the hour but what were doing right now. The city of manhattan. A large swath of manhattan is without power. You see the number there. 42,000. I was talking to jonathan dienst from wnwc. Hes saying that is one of those represents a customer. It could be a hotel is a customer. So 42,000 customers are without power. It could be hundreds of thousands in new york city. This is a result of a transformer that blew up. For those who know new york city, on the west end side of the city. Right now, the power outage covers at well over two miles here in new york city, i would say. Two square miles. As we reach the top of the hour, the mayor of new york, bill de blas blasio, is tweeting about all of this and mentioning the Fire Department and the city agencies are responding and trying to get this power outage fixed here in new york city. It was all due to a manhole fire that took place earlier this evening. The disruption is significant. And we do say good afternoon and good evening, everybody, if youre tuning in at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. 6 00 p. M. On the west coast. A massive power outage that has taken place about 6 45 p. M. Thousands of people are without power. Weve been watching new yorks times square where you can see to the left of the scene. Many buildings are without power. They have not been restored of yet. Con ed is tellingth