Power was restored for residents in Greenwich Village and the West Village this morning, more than four days after Superstorm Sandy darkened entire neighborhoods in Manhattan.
Con Edison confirmed the restoration – involving areas between 15th and Spring streets and West Broadway/5th Ave. to Broadway – on Twitter.
“Power in the West Village!” wrote one resident on Twitter. “Just went to my apartment as far as I can see outside.”
Greenwich Village resident Erica Cramer said she was “ecstatic” when the smell of radiator heat woke her up at 5 a.m.
People in SoHo and Tribeca also saw their power come back on.
Con Edison customers in Kips Bay, from 39th Street to 30th Street from the East River to Madison Ave. had their power restored overnight as well, according to the utility’s Twitter feed, which features additional details on which areas have had their lights turned back on.
The East Village and Lower East Side were the first hurricane-darkened neighborhoods put back on line by Con Ed crews, with the lights coming back on just before 5 p.m. yesterday.
An hour later, power was restored to Chelsea, as overjoyed residents overcame their anger at Con Ed and began planning Friday night parties.
“People of the EV & LES: Resist urge to French kiss electrical sockets in celebration. Hug a @conedison worker instead,” tweeted Kat Kinsman, whose twitter handle is @kittenwithawhip.
“I’ve never been so happy to see a street light. And just in time for Friday night. Time to celebrate!” said Lower East Side resident Steve Hernandez.
The power restoration emptied out Welcome to the Johnsons, a bar on Rivington Street.
“It was like, ‘Power’s back — let’s go home!’ ” said Andrew Fee, 30. “Everyone is so happy. It’s been a wasteland around here.”
Power was back at 7 p.m. to 8,800 customers in the City Hall neighborhood and 30,000 customers near Madison Square.
The Cooper Square network was also restored last night.
The neighborhoods restored last night came back sooner than Con Ed’s vow that it would restore power to southern Manhattan late today.
Power has been restored to about 60 percent of the New York metro area, Gov. Cuomo said at a Saturday briefing.
However, he noted that there were still around 900,000 customers without power in the area.
The “have-nots” include about 550,000 customers on Long Island. That’s down from 1.2 million initially.
Cuomo acknowledged that people without power are suffering.
He said the lingering power woes are largely in areas with overhead lines.
There also are some outages remaining upstate.
New York State Electric & Gas reported about 47,000.
Central Hudson Gas and Electric had about 3,700.
Additional reporting by Bill Sanderson, Natalie O’Neill, Aaron Feis, Carl Campanile, Dan Good, Hilary Lewis and the Associated Press