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 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 thats between 5th avenue and the 40s to the 70s. So thats about 30 blocks of the northern part of manhattan. The Fire Department has asked that people only call 911 in theres 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 to a physical area. And he said there was no injuries, that anyone who needs more informations can call 311 or go to notify nyc. And in terms of the cost we are waiting to hear from con edison. Hopefully they are going to do a Press Conference this evening. They have said that they expect that power will be back at around 10 30 eastern. But if you look at that live picture of times square thats on your screen, you can see that a majority of that screen is still black. Heavy presence from Law Enforcement and from the Fire Department. They said there is a coordinated response between Emergency Responders. And their biggest concern tonight is keeping people save. This all happened as a result of two incidences of Transformer Fire and a Manhole Explosion. This was in a heavily Commercial Area in the southern part of that Blackout Region. And then a deeply residential area in the northern part of that Blackout Region. I know weve been talking all evening about some of the ways that new yorkers are coming together in this moment. And one of the best stories that
ive seen on social media was this moment from carnegie hall. There was a concert happening, and like many of the broadway shows we mentioned, just like the j. Lo show and Madison Square garden, this concert had to let out. When they did, people took to the streets. Lets pull up the video and show how new york responds. [ singing ] so for those of you who have not been to a live concert at carnegie hall, you just got a free one out there on the sidewalk in New York City. That is how new yorkers make
lemonade out of lemons. I think that we were talking earlier about how every person who lives in this city, especially since 9 11 when Something Like this happens our stomach initially drops. Its just the reality of the changed dna of the city and of our nation and this heightened security. But were lucky that this was a blackout, it was a mechanical issue. So we saw new yorkers coming froth all over the city just like this concert hall and just like people who were jumping in to direct traffic. And in contrast to that, the j. Lo concert was canceled. And we have video of people out there getting together singing aint your mama. A j. Lo song. People were just frustrated at the j. Lo concert. Lets bring in kathy park. You as an nbc correspondent here on msnbc news. You have been outside of our studio where it has been pitch
black. Are any of the lights coming back on . Reporter no. The lights are still out. But morgan and kendis, i had the opportunity to really speak with people from all over the world. A family from england. Here i have a family from nashville. And you guys just arrived to New York City. You had plans to see wicked, which is a very popular broadway show. You are staying at the hotel. Fortunately you got out after the blackout and youre Walking Toward Gersch Win theater and tell me what happened. Thankfully we werent on the elevator. We had gotten to our room ready to go. Took the stairs down since the elevator was out of commission. We thought we saw lights ahead but it was just kind of spotty on the blackouts. And unfortunately got there about 7 30, and then about 8 15 they called the show tonight. Reporter the show is at 8 00, were approaching another hour into the blackout . So what have you been doing in the city . Well, we basically have just kind of been looking around, walking into shops and see if theres something to do with everything closed. Reporter what do you think of the city right now . This is probably not what you were looking forward to when you were planning a trip to the big apple. No, not really. [ laughter ] reporter are you keeping up to date . I know. Shes being very honest. But it seems like everyone is still in relatively good spirits, right, mom . Yeah. Its not raining. We werent stuck on an elevator. We werent in the subway. So im just thankful that it is the way it is right now and there was ice cream to be found somewhere to break the heat. Reporter exactly. A lot of these vendors just along the streets, i mine hot dogs, nuts, ice cream. Those are still available. I know a lot of the restaurants are closed so thats not bad. Right . No. Reporter but thats the situation though, guys. I know. Im trying to convince her. But when the lights go back on, i think her mood is going to change. Like i said, this is a situation that people are kind of taking in stride. Its not tense. Its not chaotic. Its a Saturday Night here, so its bustling a lot of movement here. I want to show you just kind of what we are seeing right now. Obviously, that is 30 rock still dark. We have some of our generators kicking in. So thats why you have some of the floors lit up. But over to the left is radio city. And you can see that the sign is completely dark. A lot of people have been coming by taking videos, some snapshots of this. And then just kind of in the background youll hear the fire trucks that are kind of coming through the area. And this is kind of drowning some of the noise in our shot right now. But this is something that weve been seeing for the past several hours as they respond to various types of emergencies throughout Midtown Manhattan. But its interesting to see just how many buildings are completely in the dark. But as i mentioned some of these are lit up because of generators that have kicked in. But a lot of folks are still kind of Walking Around taking it all in, taking New York City in. Its a city that never sleeps and i dont know if anyone will be getting any sleep tonight. But i did talk to one family who had to walk dozens of flights of stairs because the elevators werent working. So a lot of folks are worn out from all the walking. I guess you kind of have to get used to it here in the city. We appreciate you standing on your feet. I know youve been out there for hours covering this story for us. So thank you for doing that. And thank you for bringing the stories to us. We look forward to coming back to you a little bit later. Thank you so much, kathy. A couple of things that were keeping an eye on right now and an ear, too. Were waiting for a Press Conference from con edison. I do believe as ive looked at these images that some of the lights have an increasing number of lights have come back on or maybe its one of those
tests where if you stare at it long enough, you start seeing different sort of figures. But i do believe that some of the lights are slowly making their way back on. We have a couple people on the phone. Jonathan, weve been talking all night long about this effort to try to get All Of The Lights back on. Were told that they may be able to restore power come midmight. They had said 10 30 eastern time. This was a difficult thing to get the whole grid back on, isnt it . The Con Ed Spokesman is saying their goal is midnight to get the power back on, on the west side of manhattan. That is just a goal. Crews are working they say as safely and as quickly as possible to try to restore power to the west side of manhattan. And the goal is for a midnight switch to get it back on, to get it back and running. But it is only a goal at this time. There is a plan right now to do
a 10 30 Press Conference at west 64th and West End Avenue to update on the cause of this incident which appears to be a mechanical fire transformertype fire that spread and led to the outage on the west side. Police, fire, office of Emergency Management personnel will be joining con ed at that Press Conference planned now for 10 30 at West 64th Street and West End Avenue. A leading nypd official says extra police have been deployed all across the west side as a precaution to help with traffic, to help with security outside many of the retailers that are now closed without power just to ensure everything remains safe. Extra ambulances, extra fire trucks are also in the vicinitiy to provide assistance as a
precaution. The Fire Department was also responding to calls of people trapped in elevators. Most of them are out. I do not have a final tally on the number of people who were called in for that type of assistance and whether any remain but that there were multiple calls about that throughout the evening. But the headline now is con ed has a goal of midnight to get the power back on, and a Press Conference is scheduled for about 10 30 on West 64th Street with police fire con ed officials to provide an update. Governor cuomo saying that he is calling for an investigation into exactly what happened so lessons can be learned and upgrades can be made so that this does not happen again. He is also deploying extra state police and mta personnel as a precaution to try to help with the mobs of people who are now impacted by the lack of Subway Service on the west side of
manhattan. Again, west side has a population of about 200,000 people. Of course, that grows with people coming in from new jersey and tourists and all sorts of other visitors and guests to manhattan. So, it is hundreds of thousands of people potentially affected by this. But, again, con ed giving the number of 90,000 customers. And the question was asked earlier, well, what does that mean . A customer is not a person. A customer could be an apartment that has four People Living in it. So, just because you have 90,000 customers, there are likely many more people affected by this power outage as a result. So i hope that provides some clarity. Midnight the goal to get the power back on. But nothing is set in stone. And as weve seen throughout the evening, information changes, developments happen, midnight the goal to get the power back on. And, jonathan, certainly a
fluid situation. I know you mentioned that Governor Cuomo was calling for an investigation. For those viewers who are just joining us, can you take us back to the beginning and describe what we do know thus far about that transformer and about that Manhole Explosion . Okay. There are two incidents that took place this evening according to police and fire officials. And both appear to be accidental, electrical in nature. Nothing at all deliberate. And the first one is that at 49th street on the far west side, there was some sort of fire, man hole explosion that impacted service to the west side of manhattan. A short time later on West 64th Street, a transformer caught fire, exploded, on the west side there, also impacting. Are the two incidents related . Unclear. The investigations going to have to determine whether one caused the other or whether they were two isolated incidents that
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 lefthand side of the screen. You will remember that building on the left was dark for the most part. You couldnt make out The Lion King images on the left. It would appear that power is
being restored there on the lefthand side which would basically be the west of manhattan. Curry johnson who is a speaker of new York City Council reporting that sections of Helds Kitchen and in the West 40s And 50s are coming back online. Including the famed and brandnew, as you know, complex there, hudson yards, where the power has quickly been returned. Con edison is saying power is restored on man hattans Upper West Side. They are estimating more customers will be restored at midnight. We are just getting that in. So it is getting better. That is right. And catherine, craig, my colleague just reports at 50th and 9th, power just came on there. So it will be rolling. It is a progression. But if you are without power in manhattan right now, midnight is the goal. So it looks as if we are on at least the positive end of all
of this. We want to continue to mention to you some other stuff that curry johnson, again, who is a really key person there. He is a speaker for the new York City Council. And he was mentioning that the power outage impacted some six grids in all. And two of those are back on. Many people have been saying that he is a potential mayoral candidate. And as a result he has been very out there on twitter today in contrast on the current mayor of New York City who is in an aptly named waterloo. He is returning after finding out what happened. But speaking of the leadership here, new york Governor Cuomo did speak to a local news station, and he said that there was a Substation Fire that then caused four other substations to lose power and that there was damage to those substations as a result. So we are learning a little bit
more about what did cause this blackout as we get closer to the time when con edison says that power will be restored. They are estimating midnight. We are also hoping to hear with them in a Press Conference within the hour. And they did initially say that the power would be back on by 10 30. And we are seeing that coming into play. The Subway Stations that have been impacted will remain closed for a little while. There were many, many Subway Stations that were closed as a result of this Subway Trains just kept going past those stops that were affected. Curry johnson continuing to say that he spoke to the ceo of con ed. He says that there are four other sections that should be back up within the next two hours. As we continue to look at these pictures there from outside the 6th avenue there, the avenue of the americas, on The Other Side of the hudson, weve been seeing some beautiful images that kind of capture how dark new york has been over the last hour or last
three hours. My colleague Richard Louis has made his way to The Other Side of the hudson in new jersey. And, richard, i can imagine you got a good sense of how dark the Upper West Side was and how it looks from your vantage point. Reporter hey, kendis. Its one of those things you and i were on air. You reporting just when the story broke. What happened is when i got off air, went downstairs, got in a car. As you look at that shot of times square, that dark space facing north is where we drov