Slowly moved its way up north. But that is the problem for a lot of people. We are hitting the top of the hour. I should mention that the power outage in New York City has now reached well past three hours. Here at msnbc along with morgan radford, weve been watching a number of different Breaking News situations right now. The big news that were getting here as we talk to you here at 10 00 p. M. We are now told at least 90,000 customers have been affected by this massive blackout here in New York City. When we first came on air several hours ago and they said that it was only about 20,000 customers, i knew that number was wrong, just based on the sheer topography. You have more than two square miles in New York City where people are in the dark. Now were being told by con edison officials that 90,000 customers which could mean hundreds of thousands of people
are in the dark right now at 10 00 at night. Just to do a quick reset for anyone who is joining us now. What we are facing out is
i am legend. because it s so there is nobody really out here except for a few vehicles that are passing by and a few people around. now, there was a streak there that was taking place a little earlier today. so part of 6th avenue which is a major, major tloro fair. they have been able to restore power to so many of the grids especially on the west side of manhattan, this area is not restored as yet. it is a very, very important area for new york city because it does include the 5th avenue area with all those really high-end retail stores as well as high-end restaurants that are all shut as a result of this. many restaurants and i m looking at in the meantime, they are normally packed on a saturday night with tourists or even locals. they are losing out on business on an evening like this. i will tell you, though, the
both happened to happen tonight, regardless they believe those two incidents caused the power outage on the west side that has affected hotels, subways, apartment buildings, restaurants, and businesses, all across the west side of manhattan. this goes from the 40s up to about 72nd street. and for those familiar with manhattan, 5th avenue is the dwigd line from east to west. so it goes from fifth avenue in the middle of manhattan all the way to the hudson river. that is the area that has been impacted by this blackout. and, jonathan, i do want to note a couple of things. first off, if we can take the big shot there of times square where the lights have started to come back on, on the left-hand side of the screen. you will remember that building on the left was dark for the most part. you couldn t make out the lion king images on the left. it would appear that power is
are in the dark right now at 10:00 at night. just to do a quick reset for anyone who is joining us now. what we are facing out is a blackout in new york city. 90,000 customers conservatively have been affected. and this blackout initially spanned east to west. for those of you in new york that s between 5th avenue and the 40s to the 70s. so that s about 30 blocks of the northern part of manhattan. the fire department has asked that people only call 9-1-1 in there s an emergency. officials are asking people to avoid going underground on the subway as transportation has been heavily impacted. there are certain subway lines that are completely down. we have heard from mayor bill de blasio. he has just announced within the last hour that he will be returning to new york. he was currently at a campaign stop in iowa and through his press secretary he said that he will come back to his city. he also said there was no indication of foul play that this was a mechanical issue that was limited