GLOOMSDAY: The eerie darkness of lower Manhattan is punctuated by the dazzling lights of the under-construction “Freedom Tower” last night in a chilling view from Brooklyn (AP)
Vast swaths of the city’s spectacular skyline went dark last night as ferocious winds and the sea surge from deadly Hurricane Sandy battered the city.
A quarter-million customers lost power in Manhattan alone.
“Most of Manhattan below 39th Street is out,” said Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert, adding that there was no timetable for getting the lights back on.
But the top of the Empire State Building remained lit, glowing amid its darkened neighbors.
Many took to the streets.
“It’s not too often you get to see the city dark,” said Greg Pearl, 26, an accountant who was taking pictures on the East Side.
A group staying at the Affinia Gardens hotel, which lost power, were told to stay in their rooms. So they bolted en masse to check out the suddenly medieval-looking city.
“We’re going to roam the city because I was never in a hurricane before,” said Susan Stubel, 42, visiting from Los Angeles.
A deafening “boom” was heard in the East Village near a power facility on the FDR facing the East River — and then the lights went out.
“Con Edison is reporting power outages to a large section of Manhattan stretching from East 39th Street to the lower tip of Manhattan,” the utility said in a statement. “The outage was caused by flooding in company substations and engineers are working to correct the problem.”
“I haven’t seen lower Manhattan shut down before. It’s kind of amusing,” said Jonathan Lee, 25, who walked across the Williamsburg Bridge with a buddy.
“It’s like an apocalypse, like a movie,” said his pal, Paul Parhar.
A high-voltage feeder on 14th Street was knocked out, Con Ed confirmed. “When feeders go out they can be real loud,” said a utility source.
“It was scary!” said Maritza Mercado, 40, on East 6th Street. “I was watching TV, looked outside the window and heard a big explosion and saw a big flash of white light like a firecracker.”
The utility also reported that a storm surge downtown caused a substation equipment failure affecting more than 60,000 customers throughout lower Manhattan and Greenwich Village — including at Con Ed’s headquarters.
Some 50,000 New Yorkers were already without power when lower Manhattan went dark.
But it wasn’t bad for everyone.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Rachel Lindover, 21. “It actually feels like nighttime. For a city that doesn’t sleep, it’s finally sleeping.”