Blackout Plunges UWS Into Darkness, Lightning Strike To Blame

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A blackout hit northern Manhattan Friday morning, including a large chunk of the Upper West Side, Upper East Side and Harlem.

The power went out around 5:13 a.m., and came back on for most residents just after 5:40 a.m.

The blackout lasted around 30 minutes and affected 180,000 customers, according to multiple reports.

In a Friday morning news conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the blackouts in Manhattan appeared related to a lightening strike.

The massive outage knocked out both lights and cellphone service on the Upper West Side.

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 & the Upper East Side. https://t.co/uW13ez5SlY
— Con Edison (@ConEdison) August 7, 2020

Con Edison quickly restored power to customers on the Upper West Side, Harlem and the Upper East Side, but 69 people are still without power in Manhattan.

The quick restoration stands in contrast to the 55,408 Con Edison customers in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island who entered their fourth day without power after Tropical Storm Isaias.

An outage map shows those powerless outer-borough customers can expect their electricity back by Sunday at 11 p.m.

Here's a collection of pictures of the blackout from social media of Friday morning's blackout:

Upper West Side blackout. pic.twitter.com/LcsvReBjdW
— Gigi Stern (@glowramia) August 7, 2020

#blackout on UWS. We are by Natural History Museum pic.twitter.com/89iNlNH6OV
— Jacqueline Reich (@Profjreich) August 7, 2020

There was just a #blackout in Harlem! Another reason why we need #PublicPower @NYCDSA_Climate @ConEdison pic.twitter.com/Tn0U5PLeCm
— Maria Ordoñez for City Council (@MariaOrdonezNYC) August 7, 2020

#blackout Harlem right now @ConEdison @NYPDnews pic.twitter.com/dsCVrdZBTv
— ASH (@Ashman65) August 7, 2020