Times Square has gone dark after a major power outage is affecting parts of New York City. A large portion of Times Square was plunged into darkness, people in the area are reporting. Learn more about what’s happening and see photos from Times Square below.

The large monitors and digital screens in Times Square went dark, which immediately clued people into something being wrong.

Christian on Twitter said that the entire block in Times Square, including stores and buildings, had now power. This has led to some people being stuck in elevators.

It’s a surreal experience to see that the large screens are now blank.

Theaters are out too.

But half of Times Square is still holding on, people in the area are reporting.

A reporter with the New York Times said that the buildings were blacked out, but some of the electrical billboards are back on as of 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

This video gives a good look at how it felt to be in the region without power:

Steve Herman from VOA News shared a map of the outage area. You can see the marked locations on Con Edison, showing 38,863 customers out of service:

One of the earlier blackouts was reported right around the time a transformer fire happened nearby, but it’s unclear if that was the cause.

The outage was reported on Manhattan’s west side, and it affected subway stations, movie theaters, and stores, the New York Post reported. This also just happened to be the 42nd anniversary of the 1977 blackout in New York that lasted 25 hours.

Lights were on in the east direction of Times Square but off on the west side.

So essentially, half of Times Square has been without power.

Some New York residents stepped up and started directing traffic themselves to help ensure safety.

The Lion King on Broadway was canceled because of the power outage.

READ NEXT: Power Out in Manhattan </s> A wide swath of New York's Manhattan borough was plunged into darkness Saturday following a transformer explosion, knocking out power to subways, stores and Broadway theatres, but the city's main utility began restoring power several hours later.

No deaths or injuries were reported due to the blackout, which officials said began at 6:47 p.m. EDT (2247 GMT), and darkened a stretch of the city from West 42nd Street to West 72nd Street, 42 years to the day from a major 1970s blackout that sparked rioting and looting.

"We are proceeding on a path to restore all customers, hopefully, by midnight tonight," John McAvoy, chief executive of utility Con Edison told a news conference. More than 70,000 homes and businesses lost power, officials said.

Shouts of celebration could be heard in parts of Manhattan as power was restored, bringing lights and air conditioners back to life. The cause of the outage was unclear, McAvoy said, adding "it does not appear related to excessive load." A Reuters witness in the area reported hearing an explosion around 7 p.m. (2300 GMT), and a city Fire Department spokesman said firefighters were on the scene of a transformer fire.

Sidewalks in Times Square that are usually crowded with tourists on a balmy summer Saturday night were overflowing as at least some Broadway theatres cancelled performances. The lights of nearby Radio City Music Hall were dark. In an attempt to cheer customers, the cast from the musical "Come From Away" performed a song in front of the stage door.

"Hadestown" cast members also staged a street-side performance. With traffic lights out, cars and taxis jammed intersections as emergency vehicles and fire engines with sirens blaring tried to pass. In some places, civilians stepped in to direct traffic. New York has endured large-scale blackouts before, most recently following Superstorm Sandy in 2012 as well as the widespread 2003 blackout across the U.S. Northeast that left most of the city without power for a day. Saturday's outage occurred on the 42nd anniversary of a New York blackout that crippled the city during a heat wave on July 13, 1977. Power was not restored until the next day.

'Are you ok?'

Memories of rioting, looting and violence during the 1977 blackout spooked some tourists visiting the city, including Dave and Dara Campbell, of Gilbert, Arizona.

"People from home were texting us, asking, 'Are you OK?'" said Dara Campbell, 40. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was sending 100 State Police officers and some National Guard troops to the city to help with traffic control.

As darkness fell just before 9 p.m. (0100 GMT), people on the Upper West Side had to use their mobile phone flashlights to negotiate normally brightly lit streets. There were reports of people trapped in building elevators without power. Subways throughout the city were affected by the outage, with some lines skipping stations that lacked power and even lines in other boroughs diverted. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson wrote on Twitter that the ConEd substation on the West Side had a "major disturbance" and that the utility was working on fixing it.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination when the outage struck, told CNN he had spoken with the police commissioner and the deputy commissioner responsible for counterterrorism.

"From what we're seeing at this moment, this is simply a mechanical problem," de Blasio said. Emerging from a subway station next to Central Park, Jeff O'Malley, a consultant who lives in Manhattan, said he was stuck in a subway car for more than an hour.

"We were stuck for about 75 minutes," said O'Malley, 57."It's completely dark. People had to use the flashlights on their phones to see their way out."

"People were having fun at first when the lights went out; it was something different," said the manager on duty at the Oxbow Tavern on Columbus Avenue and 71st Street, who declined to give his name. With some stations and traffic lights dark, many residents and visitors alike took to the streets and walked, according to social media posts, many of which had the hashtag #blackoutnyc. </s> A wide swath of New York's Manhattan borough was plunged into darkness Saturday following a transformer explosion, knocking out power to subways, stores and Broadway theatres, but the city's main utility began restoring power several hours later.

No deaths or injuries were reported due to the blackout, which officials said began at 6:47 p.m. EDT (2247 GMT), and darkened a stretch of the city from West 42nd Street to West 72nd Street, 42 years to the day from a major 1970s blackout that sparked rioting and looting.

"We are proceeding on a path to restore all customers, hopefully, by midnight tonight," John McAvoy, chief executive of utility Con Edison told a news conference. More than 70,000 homes and businesses lost power, officials said.

Shouts of celebration could be heard in parts of Manhattan as power was restored, bringing lights and air conditioners back to life. The cause of the outage was unclear, McAvoy said, adding "it does not appear related to excessive load." A Reuters witness in the area reported hearing an explosion around 7 p.m. (2300 GMT), and a city Fire Department spokesman said firefighters were on the scene of a transformer fire.

Sidewalks in Times Square that are usually crowded with tourists on a balmy summer Saturday night were overflowing as at least some Broadway theatres cancelled performances. The lights of nearby Radio City Music Hall were dark. In an attempt to cheer customers, the cast from the musical "Come From Away" performed a song in front of the stage door.

"Hadestown" cast members also staged a street-side performance. With traffic lights out, cars and taxis jammed intersections as emergency vehicles and fire engines with sirens blaring tried to pass. In some places, civilians stepped in to direct traffic. New York has endured large-scale blackouts before, most recently following Superstorm Sandy in 2012 as well as the widespread 2003 blackout across the U.S. Northeast that left most of the city without power for a day. Saturday's outage occurred on the 42nd anniversary of a New York blackout that crippled the city during a heat wave on July 13, 1977. Power was not restored until the next day. </s> New York City Experiences Blackout On The 42nd Anniversary Of The 1977 Power Outage

The city that never sleeps took a little nap...unexpectedly.

New York City, known as the City that Never Sleeps took an unexpected nap Saturday night (July 14) when a reported 73,000 customers from Midtown to Times Square 42nd Street and the Upper West Side were without power.

Officials said that a transformer fire at West 64th Street and West End Avenue is likely the cause of the power outage, however, at about 12:30 AM Sunday (July 14) Con Edison CEO Jon McAvoy said electricity had been restored in most parts of the city.

During the nearly five-hour blackout traffic lights in the touristy section of New York were down, while 10 subway lines were also halted, forcing some riders to leave the station and walk on foot or remain underground, bearing the humidity. Despite the spotty cell phone service, some who were trapped in elevators were able to call firefighters to help.

St. Luke's Roosevelt Hotel, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall (pictured above) were all without power during the outage.

New York City Mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Bil de Blasio took to Twitter instructing New Yorkers to stay inside if they can, and said city agencies would "work with ConEd to get to the bottom of what happened tonight and prevent another widespread outage like this."

The 2019 blackout isn't a first for native New Yorkers. Coincidently, on July 13, 1977, a power outage affecting most of the city took place, while in 2003 New York, along with most of the east coast, midwest, and Ontario, Canada lost power on August 14 of that year. It took about two days to restore power to most of the city.

And just because the power was gone, doesn't mean people stopped having fun. The cast of Broadway's Hadestown did an impromptu performance outside, the theater which brought light to many. </s> New York City was plunged into darkness last night after parts of Manhattan were hit by a blackout.

Times Square, Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen were all among the areas left without electricity, which began at 6.47pm.

Broadway shows were forced to halt their performances, while Jennifer Lopez had to abandon her concert at Madison Square Garden after just four songs.

The New York City Fire Department said the outages were caused by a transformer fire which started at West 64th Street and West End Avenue on the Upper West Side.

More than 73,000 Con Edison customers without power until the lights came back on the next day.

During the blackout, New Yorkers shared pictures and videos of themselves at train stations, eating in restaurants or trapped in lifts in the dark.

Jeff O’Malley, 57, said he was stuck on a train carriage for about 75 minutes.

He said: ‘It’s completely dark [in the station]. People were coming up using their flashlights on their phones.’

Some Broadway shows decided to continue their cancelled performances in the street, with cast members from Waitress, Hadestown and Rock of Ages singing in the open-air.

Jennifer Lopez told her fans she was ‘devastated and heartbroken’ by her cancelled concert, but vowed to reschedule the performance for Monday.

Videos shared online showed members of the public stepping into the road in a bid to try and help direct traffic.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the power outage ‘unacceptable’ and said the Department of Public Service would be investigating the blackout.

He sent 100 State Police officers and some National Guard troops to help with traffic control during the blackout.

The outage occurred on the 42nd anniversary of a New York blackout that crippled nearly the entire city during a heat wave on July 13, 1977.

Con Edison and New York officials said power was restored just before midnight. </s> NEW YORK (Reuters) - Government and utility officials were still searching for definite reasons on Sunday for a five-hour blackout in a large section of New York City’s Manhattan borough that left 73,000 customers without power on Saturday.

No deaths or injuries resulted from the blackout that stretched from West 30th Street to West 72nd Street, an area filled with tourist attractions and Broadway theaters.

A transformer explosion at West 49th Street cascaded into a widespread outage that cut power subways, homes and businesses.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city and Consolidation Edison Co. of New York, the city’s main utility, ruled out a surge in usage as a factor for the blackout on Saturday.

Neither a cyber attack nor a terrorist act were to blame, de Blasio added at a press conference. “Definite causes will take some time” to figure out, he said.

Activity in the Times Square appeared back to normal on Sunday. Traffic and subways returned to their summer weekend flow.

Broadway theaters reopened after shows were canceled the evening before.

During Saturday’s blackout, Broadway performers entertained on sidewalks to delighted crowds, while a few citizens directed cars and trucks after traffic lights went down.

Con Edison President Timothy Cawley assured that its electrical system will be able to handle a pickup in demand in air conditioning in the coming days. “We are prepared to the end of the week,” he said. “We could still serve the system on the hottest day of the year.”

The city is bracing for daily peak temperature in the high-80s to low-90s Fahrenheit (low-to-mid 30 Celsius) over the next five days, according to the National Weather Service. </s> (CNN) Power was starting to come back to parts of New York on a warm Saturday night as ConEdison restored electrical service on the west side of Manhattan after widespread power outages canceled shows and sent tens of thousands of people onto darkened streets, officials said.

There were 16,000 customers without power in Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side, utility company ConEdison said. At its peak, the number was about 72,000, it said.

The company estimated most customers will have power restored by midnight.

As he spoke to reporters, the lights came on in buildings behind him and the crowd cheered loudly.

Just before the lights and air conditioners began to come back on, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the numbers of customers without power had soared from 20,000 right after the blackout started because transformers kept tripping.

The power outage sent people into intersections to direct traffic, brought at least one troupe from a canceled Broadway show out to perform for fans on a crowded sidewalk, and prompted giddy tourists and locals to point smart phones at darkened neon signs in Times Square and other places.

It also temporarily trapped people on trains and in elevators.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was returning to the city after a presidential campaign stop in Iowa, said it appears the outage was the result of a mechanical problem in the electrical grid.

"This appears to be something that just went wrong in the way that they transmit power from one part of the city to another," he told CNN. "It sounds like it is addressable in a reasonable amount of time."

ConEd CEO John McAvoy said the company is working to understand the cause of the outage and needs to do a full engineering analysis.

Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Seen from the air, a large section of Manhattan's Upper West Side and Midtown neighborhoods stand coated in darkness on Saturday, July 13. Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Times Square's billboards are black as people fill the street. Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage People use their phones as flashlights. Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Pedestrians looks at their cellphones in midtown Manhattan. Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Radio City Music Hall is dark during the blackout. Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage An entrance to the C and E trains at the 50th Street Subway Station is dimly lit. Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage People sit inside a bar during the power outage. Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Dark buildings along a dark street are seen near the Times Square area. Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Con Edison workers stand around a barricaded transformer cover. Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage People are evacuated outside Row NYC hotel. Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage A convenience shop is closed. Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage A man directs traffic on 8th Avenue and West 58th Street. Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage The Upper West Side of Manhattan is in the dark. The city's fire department was responding to numerous transformer fires, the first of which occurred in Manhattan on West 64th Street and West End Avenue, officials said. Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage People walk along a dark street near Times Square. Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage A police officer directs traffic in Times Square. Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage A view of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood shows buildings in darkness. Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage A train sits out of service at Penn Station. Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Parts of Manhattan in the dark after power outage Buildings near Columbus Circle are dark. Hide Caption 18 of 18

The city's fire department responded to numerous transformer fires, the first of which occurred in Manhattan on West 64th Street and West End Avenue, officials said.

Several Broadway and off-Broadway shows said they were canceling performances, according to tweets aggregated by The Broadway League

Firefighters also responded to people trapped in elevators and subway cars, and they are operating all over Manhattan's West Side from streets in the 40s to the 60s, according to an FDNY spokesman.

Some of the cast from "Come From Away" came outside as people awaited news of whether the show would be call off and they sang a number.

The outage was having a widespread effect on the New York subway system, which was experiencing power outages in its stations, the agency managing the trains said.

"Subway service remains significantly disrupted across the system, although there is limited service on the 1/2/3 and 4/5/6 lines," the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tweeted.

Update: Con Edison continues to work to resolve the power outage in Manhattan.



Subway service remains significantly disrupted across the system, although there is limited service on the 1/2/3 and 4/5/6 lines.



Local bus routes are your best bet for travel within Manhattan. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/RV8EiFLYZx — NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) July 14, 2019

The MTA advised people to stay away from underground stations.

The outages were affecting "multiple lines," the MTA said, so trains were using a "local track."

The MTA told people to consider taking the bus.

The lack of power was a major issue on the streets and in buildings, too.

A CNN producer on the Upper West Side said he was at a movie when the theater went dark at about 7 p.m. He went outside and saw traffic and street lights were out. Traffic was jamming up in intersections but it wasn't gridlocked, he said.

Twitter user Sahid Abraham posted a photo from Times Square that showed some of the famous electronic billboards dark.

Times Square is down, i repeat, Times Square is down. This is not a drill!! #Blackout #NYC pic.twitter.com/8IUfER7ozl — Sahid Abraham (@Sahid0) July 13, 2019

Another user posted a photo showing a man at 66th Street and Broadway directing traffic.

No cops directing traffic at 66th Street and Broadway. Up to the #fruitstandguy to direct traffic because of the #blackout in nyc pic.twitter.com/jQpCC8TgMI — wilkssc (@wilkssc) July 13, 2019

A woman jumped in to help at a nearby intersection.

Lake Escobosa, 23, a dancer living in Brooklyn, spent nearly an hour directing traffic, marshaling cars, ambulances and pedestrians through a busy, three-way intersection near New York's Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

She said she learned her traffic directing skills from her father, a former police officer who walked the beat in Coney Island.

"I know how tricky it is when it comes to that intersection and I just saw in my mind car accidents people getting hit, people screaming," she said. "So I felt like I should have just tried."

On Columbus Avenue, outside Fordham University's campus, the scope of the outage was becoming more apparent as daylight waned. There were very few lights in building windows and brightly lit food carts were some of the few sources of light beyond vehicle headlights.

There were no reports of injuries.

The outages come 42 years to the day of an extensive blackout that affected much of the city. </s> Power was restored to all 72,000 customers in New York City early Sunday after a massive outage left a portion of Manhattan’s West Side in the dark — causing canceled shows, traffic jams and chaos in the subway system for hours.

Con Edison said at 1 a.m. Sunday that electricity was restored to the remaining 9,700 customers after a problem at a substation just before 7 p.m. Saturday led to a power failure that affected those from Times Square to 72nd Street and Broadway and spread to Rockefeller Center.

“With all customers back in service, the company will focus on investigating the cause of the equipment failures and on getting the electrical-delivery system back to its normal level of reliability,” the utility company said in a statement.

The blackout affected the entire subway system, causing four Manhattan stations to shut down. Photos and videos showed people attempting to make their way out of dark subway stations. Some were also briefly trapped on the trains before operators were able to manually change the signals and bring at least one car into the stations to allow passengers to disembark.

Some screens in Times Square went black, while most Broadway musicals and plays announced cancellations Saturday evening. Jennifer Lopez, who had just begun her performance at Madison Square Garden for her “It’s My Party” tour, also took to social media to say the concert was canceled for the night.

“They just told me to get off stage. I was waiting there, obviously, all the power went out in the city and obviously here at Madison Square Garden … we had just started our show,” Lopez said in a video posted to her social media accounts.

She later said she was “devastated and heartbroken” by the incident, but added the show is set to be rescheduled for Monday night at the same venue.

Along with Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were also evacuated.

Con Edison CEO John McAvoy said the exact cause of the blackout would not be known until an investigation is completed.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a Saturday night news conference that no injuries were reported from the blackout that he labeled as “unacceptable.”

"You just can't have a power outage of this magnitude in this city," Cuomo said. "It is too dangerous, the potential for public safety risk and chaos is too high, we just can't have a system that does that, it's that simple at the end of the day."

Cuomo also said in a statement, "While this situation was luckily contained, the fact that it happened at all is unacceptable. I have directed the PSC to do a full and thorough investigation into the cause of tonight's blackout and we will hold all parties accountable in ensuring this does not happen again."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was campaigning on the presidential trail in Waterloo, Iowa when the power outage struck. His press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, tweeted just before 10 p.m. that de Blasio cut short his Iowa visit and was headed back to the city.

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The mayor commended New Yorkers for handling the blackout "with that trademark NYC grit and toughness" in a tweet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> On the anniversary of a 1977 blackout that hit most of New York City, a massive power outage brought the curtain down on Broadway shows and stalled traffic on Manhattan streets. Underground, the power outage affecting 73,000 customers for hours also left the subway system in disarray.

Con Edison CEO John McAvoy said a problem at a substation caused the 6:47 p.m. ET power failure, which stretched 30 blocks from Times Square to 72nd Street and Broadway and spread to Rockefeller Center. Electricity was restored to customers and businesses in midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side by around midnight, according to a statement from the utility.

McAvoy said the exact cause of the blackout would not be known until an investigation is completed.

The outage affected the entire subway system, closing four Manhattan stations to the public — Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center, Hudson Yards and Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street. But Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Maxwell Young said train operators were able to manually change the signals and bring at least one car into stations so passengers could disembark.

New York City’s Emergency Management Department said the A, C, D, E, F, M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains had resumed running in both directions by around 2 a.m. Sunday, following service disruptions from the blackout. Multiple street lanes between the Hudson River and Fifth Avenue had also reopened by 1:30 a.m.

The temperature was in the low 80s as the sun set just before 8:30 p.m., treating those who had streamed into the streets to one of the city’s famed “Manhattanhenge” sunsets. While hot, the temperature didn’t reach the highs of Manhattan in July, which often challenges the city’s power grid.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no injuries were reported and praised emergency officials for their response to the blackout, which he called “unacceptable.”

“You just can’t have a power outage of this magnitude in this city” Cuomo said. “It is too dangerous, the potential for public safety risk and chaos is too high, we just can’t have a system that does that, it’s that simple at the end of the day.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was campaigning on the presidential trail in Waterloo, Iowa, when the power outage struck. His press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, tweeted just before 10 p.m. that de Blasio cut short his Iowa visit and was headed back to the city.

The mayor commended New Yorkers for handling the blackout “with that trademark NYC grit and toughness” in a tweet.

For hours before the power flickered back on, doormen stood with flashlights in the darkened entrances of upscale apartment buildings along Central Park West, directing residents up flights of stairs. Police and deployed troopers directed traffic at intersections to the soundtrack of sirens and horns, while people in the neighbourhood known as Hell’s Kitchen took it upon themselves to guide traffic in the absence of stoplights and walking signals.

In the theatre district, marquees darkened just before evening performances were set to begin. Most Broadway musicals and plays cancelled their Saturday evening shows, though some cast members staged impromptu performances in the street.

Jennifer Lopez’s concert at Madison Square Garden was cut short in the middle of her fourth song of the night, although officials at Penn Station below used backup generators to keep the lights on. Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts were all evacuated. Lopez later tweeted that she would reschedule the stop on her “It’s My Party” tour for Monday night at the same venue.
A blackout in New York City affects 42,000 people near Times Square.