there was no foul play involved, we found out what s behind i, and people began to sort of keep their spirits high, even make light of it. now that the power is back up, we re hearing those stories from those people who were affected, including members of the millennial choir and orchestra. elena, thank you for chatting with us. you were going to perform tonight at the machkt carnegie hall. you were on stage and the lights went out. what was that like? at first i thought it was light that was tracking and then all of a sudden the emergency lights came on and i looked over to my friends and i m like is this part of what s supposed to have been happening for our performance? and then people started coming out and saying we need to go outside and evacuate you. and we re like, what is going
it s windy and rainy. and the worst really could be yet to come as the rain and the storm hits this area. this is randi kaye reporting, cnn, baton rouge. our thanks to randi kaye and to nick watt in louisiana. we ll take a quick break and on the other side go back to our breaking news out of manhattan on that blackout. actually we will not be taking a break. what you re seeing right now are live scenes in manhattan, after the widespread manhattan blackout that lasted for hours. the power has been coming slowly back on. this is the head of con edison, the power company, and governor andrew cuomo. we ll listen in. we experienced a significant electrical disturbance on the west side of manhattan. eventually it resulted in the loss of 73,000 customers. we divide the electrical system
subway outages and traffic chaos as well as general confusion that ensued, officials are reporting that no injuries or other significant emergencies happened. the best news for new york city on this hot july saturday night is the power is coming back on, as you can see with those pictures and the empire state building. for more, cnn s brian stelter has been on the ground for us and he s in columbus circle. for those not familiar with new york, brian, that s at the south side of central park. you are in the only power network where power has not yet been restored. what are you seeing there now? reporter: that s right. that s why there are police officers behind us here directing traffic, because these traffic lights are still out. this part of the city, this neighborhood, really, of manhattan is still without power at 11:00 p.m. eastern. you can see some of the crossing guard workers behind us here. yet life still goes on in the big city, right, alex? you still have the ice cream truc
you? a fire truck just went by, i couldn t hear you. we are out here on central park south and the power has come back on in the last ten minutes, you can tell it s much breyer out here than it was before. this is seventh avenue and central park south. the police officers are letting the traffic lights do their jobs. we can see the lights in the nearby hotels and nearby apartment buildings all coming back to normal. this is a relatively happy resolution for the locals and the tourists who have been awaiting this. we heard from july manni willia new york city s public advocate. when i was out here about 11:05,
cuomo, not necessarily as positive. he had already said that this was not acceptable. he says the system has to work. you simply cannot have a power outage in a city like this. you cannot have an event like this happen. he says the investigation into exactly what happened will be launched right away. the governor also saying that despite the fact that all the power is back, that there are some lights that are still out in buildings and streetlights. he actually called the situation chaotic. he said there was pandemonium, he called on new yorkers despite the fact that the power is back to still stay in their homes. he encouraged them to go to bed, to stay off the streets and not go out if they don t have to. he said the situation is resolved, but it has been