Con Edison Making Progress In Tackling Manhattan Power Outages
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Chunks of blackout-plagued Manhattan were getting their power back on Friday evening.
People were celebrating on blocks where residents had spent the past four nights in an eerie, urban darkness.
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"There was cheering in the streets," one man told 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks. "We walked outside and I said 'There's a traffic light and the traffic light is blinking, apparently the power is back on.' And then the gas station attendant came out and she heard. It was a very happy moment."
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Con Edison said the lights went back on at around 5 p.m. Friday in about 65,000 homes, apartment buildings and businesses on the Lower East Side and in the East Village. Another 25,000 customers in Chelsea got power a short time later.
"It was a little confusing because I stopped off at my office on 16th Street and I came out and I turned the corner and I saw that more traffic lights were on," another woman told 1010 WINS' Brooks. "It was kind of unbelievable."
Other nearby neighborhoods remained dark.
The utility said it expects to have power back in the bulk of Manhattan's blackout zone Saturday.
The utility said some neighborhoods in suburban sections of the city with overhead wires may be without power until Nov. 11.
(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
