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Power Outage In New York City, 40,000-Plus Customers In The Dark; Tropical Storm Barry A Category One Hurricane. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired July 13, 2019 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANA CABRERA, CNN NEWSROOM: The famous electric billboards in Times Square, many of them are in the dark, restaurants, theaters, stores, apartment buildings without electricity. Con Edison is the power company here in New York City. They say they are working to restore service. But for now, much of Manhattan on a hot Saturday night in July is in the dark.

CNN's Brian Stelter joins us by the phone. Brian, I know you are steps from Central Park. What does New York City look like tonight from your vantage point?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, the crossing guards are running the intersections, they have their flashlights out directing traffic. Carnegie Hall is nearby, the famous concert hall. And some of the performers who weren't able to put on their show, so they came out on the street and had a show for some of the tourists nearby. So this is (INAUDIBLE). Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, this is the heart of tourists part of New York City.

And a lot of the tourists are intrigued, amused by this, a lot of the residents like myself and family are just a little annoyed. Hopefully, this is nothing more than a nuisance, but obviously some elderly residents, for some people who need to get up and down, elevators, this has been a problem. We know the police and fire responded to dozens of calls about elevator outages.

And I'm looking out at the nearby buildings here, Ana, and I see, first of all, the moon starting to light up New York City. Second, some neighbors bringing out candles, starting find ways to create light. And in some office buildings, you start to see some of the really expensive buildings turning on their backup generators. But those are only to certain floors for very specific reasons.

For the most part, the City of New York, the midtown west from Fifth Avenue over to the Hudson River is in the dark. That's from the 70 up to 72nd street down to the 40th. You see people on the street walking out with their cell phones, using those as sources of light.

You know, we haven't seen any blackouts in the social media age, why people -- everybody use their cell phones as their flashlights. So at least for a few hours, people will have that as a backup source of power, Ana.

CABRERA: And, Brian, when you're talking to people around there, are people worried, are they concerned, what is the mindset?

STELTER: I think they're mostly intrigued but a little bit of concerned. I just spoke with my neighbors because I live in a high rise building here in Columbus Circle, they had to walk more than 15 flights up the stairs with the dog. And that's nothing more than an annoyance. Certainly my wife who is eight months pregnant, I'm a little bit worried about having to go to the hospital, but worst comes to worse, we can walk on over. I think (INAUDIBLE) for older residents, for elderly residents and then also for tourists who don't know how to get around.

Now, we're talking about the hotel district of New York, some of the Broadway shows have been cancelled. So I think a lot of people who had plans on a Saturday night in New York City are starting to have their plans get screwed up.

And we're also seeing the best of New York. We're seeing people on the street helping direct traffic because there weren't enough crossing guards right away to do so.

So, as usual, we see residents step up to the challenge when there's a little bit of an infrastructural problem in New York.

CABRERA: And let me just read the latest update that we have from Con Edison. This was from a little while ago, and we're still waiting to see if they give us any more information. But the latest we have right now is that Con Edison is responding to extensive power outages affecting approximately 42,700 customers on the west side of Manhattan, the company will provide updates as they become available.

They go on to say, company crews are working now to repair the problem. Con Edison advises in the affected areas, for people to switch off or unplug electrical appliances, to avoid potential damage to those appliances when power is restored, so that's important information for those who may be listening to us right now on the radio devices.

I want to bring CNN's Chad Myers in to give us more information about the scope of these power outages. Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Really, from 72, 72nd Street upper west side, all the way down to 42, 42nd, and somewhere in between, there's a little bit of an up and down, I heard some power on on 51st street, but all the way from the Hudson River, all the way over to about avenue of the Americas or Sixth Avenue.

So a fairly small tight little area here, but a very touristy area, the most touristy area in the City of New York, right through here, Central Park through here, all the way down to Lower Manhattan, this way down here, Battery Park, power is completely on there. It is the area up here right near the park that is the most affected.

So let's kind of zoom in and we'll drill down on this map to show you the people that are out of power. And I think Brian hit it really on the head a little bit ago when he said, sure, 40,000 customers are without power, what does that mean if there's only one meter to a building, all of a sudden there are many, many more people on that one meter, but Con Ed only believes that -- you know, it's only saying that there's one customer affected.

[21:05:05]

Clearly, there are more than 42,000 people living in this area. And certainly with the elevators in the high rises and on the hotels, there will be an awful lot of people inconvenienced here.

Here are the outages here. Here's Central Park. This right here would be Broadway all the way down to Times Square. And if we zoom in, we can actually show you how many buildings are here, how many high rises are in the area and how many people are truly affected.

Now, many businesses probably don't count. And there are a lot of office spaces in here, and because it's a Saturday night, hopefully nobody is there working. So that's the good news here. But all the elevators that did get stopped if they weren't on emergency power, those people are being taken off rather slowly, I assume, because they have to get from one elevator to the next. And there have been many elevators in this high rise part of midtown Manhattan. Ana?

CABRERA: And that is a big concern. All of us can imagine being in one of those elevators when the power goes out, and how scary that would be. Chad Myers thank you for that update.

CNN Crime and Justice Reporter Shimon Prokupecz is with us.

And, Shimon, I know you've been in touch with officials with NYPD and the Fire Department here, what are you learning?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. So I guess the most important for people to know is that everything is under control. The NYPD, the Fire Department obviously responding to different calls, people needing rescue who are stuck in elevators. They may not be able to get to everyone. Unfortunately, we're over two hours into this, and there are still many, many people stuck in elevators. And that's just going to happen.

One of the biggest issues, I think, with the NYPD right now is actually crowd control. A lot of people on the streets of Manhattan in Times Square, tourists, people who can't get back into their homes, and others are just walking around and just noticing, and watching what's going on. So the biggest issue for them right now is trying to control the crowds, the people that have gathered all around these areas, specifically in Times Square, on the west side of Manhattan. So that's what they're also dealing with, and the cars, because a lot of the traffic lights are out.

But so far, no injuries have been reported, no one's been seriously injured, there are some people taken to hospitals, some people who need oxygen, there are people who live in high rise buildings that are on oxygen. So the Fire Department and the NYPD has responded to those apartments to make sure that people who are in need of oxygen are getting oxygen. And if they need to, they're taking them to hospitals. And also, the city's Office of Emergency Management obviously is coordinating the entire effort.

And as of right now, you know, people that I've talked to, everything seems to be under control. They seem to have a handle on it. And now, they're just waiting for Con Edison to restore some of the power.

After the subway system, even once power is restored, it's going to take some time to get the subways running normal, normal again, because they're going to run these trains through and make sure there are no issues.

But right now, for the most part, people are safe. I think most people are just out and about noticing what's going on, kind of want to mingle. You know, New York is an interesting place, right? People get out and they start helping each other. People are at corners helping traffic, and stoplights, so acting as crossing guards in some way. So it's definitely an interesting time and it's definitely something that the NYPD has done before, the fire department has done before, there were other major blackouts like this in New York City.

So they're dealing with all this. I think most people, what's important to know, is that things are under control, it's a huge inconvenience and obviously, hopefully, here, soon the power will be restored.

CABRERA: Okay. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you. Stand by with us, you mentioned the subway, I just want to read the latest update from New York City Transit Authority for our viewers. It does say that there's limited service on the numbered lines, the one, two and three on the west side, and the four, five and six on the east side, also the seven between Manhattan and Queens. However, they say, our entire system is affected by this Con Edison outage. In Manhattan, the bus is your best bet, they say. Stay tuned. So that is the latest.

We did speak with Mayor de Blasio, who said they didn't believe anybody was still trapped on the subway, so that was good news. And as Shimon just mentioned, police and fire are mobilizing to do some crowd control, they believe they have everything under control at the moment.

Let me bring in CNN's Law Enforcement Analyst and former FBI Supervisor, Special Agent Josh Campbell.

Josh, your reaction to what we've just learned from Shimon in terms of how law enforcement is responding.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, just a massive response effort that is under way by law enforcement, as well as emergency services. Obviously, we heard there were people possibly trapped in elevators. There are a number of intersections that required traffic control. NYPD Spokesman George Tsourovakas is telling us that the NYPD's strategic response group is being deployed to this area.

[21:10:02]

Now, this is their rapid reaction force. It's a team that they can deploy to any part of the city to augment officers to help respond to special incidents. So those assets are on the way.

Now, we've heard that this is possibly accidental, reports possibly of a manhole fire. That said, we're certainly not out of the woods yet because as we look at the prolonged nature of this, we're going on now almost two hours, and we're still seeing these power outages.

I think it's important to note that the electric grid system is based on redundancies, the reason it's rare you have a single point of failure (INAUDIBLE) all the time, power surges, faulty equipment, system overloads and the like. And the reason we don't experience them is because you have these redundancies.

However, a prolonged incident like the one we're in right now either means one of two things. Either the system has been stressed to the max and the possible damage is so extreme, or authorities haven't been able to pinpoint its location of the point of failure. Obviously, none of those are good. So as this goes on, it will be so important for authorities to continue to communicate to the public what's going on.

Obviously, it will be difficult for those who are impacted to turn on the television and the like. But people have mobile phones. They have the CNN app, for example. So it's going to be so important for authorities to continue to communicate that information, to manage expectations, to try to ensure the situation is being handled appropriately, and more importantly, to try to provide some kind of timeframe on when they can expect the power to be up and running, Ana.

CABRERA: And when we spoke to Mayor de Blasio about a half-an-hour ago, he had been in touch with authorities, they could not give us a timeframe in terms of how long they anticipated this would be a problem, that the outage would be ongoing.

He did say, however, they do not believe. He says, what I want to make clear is that something within the normal electric grid, something that obviously didn't work but no other kind of external influence here. This appears to be something that just went wrong in the way that they transmit power from one part of the city to another to address the demand. He doesn't believe anything nefarious or there was a kind of foul play involved. Although he said it is still early in this investigation.

Let me go back to Polo Sandoval live on the streets of New York for us. Polo, you have been talking to tourists. What are you hearing? How are they reacting now?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, Ana, let me give you a sense of where we are, right? We're here in midtown Manhattan, about three or four blocks south, you're going to end up in Times Square.

But check this out, another two or three blocks north, you would essentially run into Central Park. When you're looking down 7th Avenue and West 51st Street, it's incredible when you see how dark it is. We're standing basically on the perimeter line of the affected area and the places that aren't affected. A gift shop, just a few feet away from me, is all lit up. But yet you see hotel -- the gift shop across the street is completely in the dark.

And you're right, we've been hearing from tourists, they certainly are heartbroken, that many of them aren't going to get to see the show. But, really, as we're fairly recent New Yorkers here, you and I, Ana, but we've lived here long enough to say, it's still pretty hard to impress a New Yorker. And so when you hear from those who are from here, including Jill Annie (ph) from the Bronx, as you see here, a lifelong resident of New York, what's your reaction, and what's happening on the streets of your city right now?

JILL ANNIE: Well, I'm at work, because I work at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. So when this happened, I was at my desk with all my co-workers, all of a sudden the lights went out. So we didn't know what we were doing. So we do what we do best, to talk to guests and make sure that the guest is okay.

So all my co-workers, everyone from the Sheraton New York Times Square is taking care of the guests as best as possibly that we can. So this is what we do, we take care of the tourists.

SANDOVAL: How about some of the guests that were on the higher levels? Were there any kind of efforts to try get them back down safely?

JILL ANNIE: Yes. We got -- we did everything properly. We made sure that we dispatched everyone out and got everybody out safely.

SANDOVAL: Ultimate hospitality for you.

JILL ANNIE: All day.

SANDOVAL: So this is a quick dinner break for you. Did you have a hard time finding any restaurants that are actually open?

JILL ANNIE: Well, from what I was told, from 72nd Street coming up this way was a transformer. We didn't know where the transformer was blowing out. So we kept getting calls from airlines and stuff and other hotels that have the same reaction.

So what we do, we do best. We make sure that everything is taken care of.

SANDOVAL: And then finally, for people seeing around the world, just so they really understand the significance of what we're looking at here, as New Yorkers, this is something that is extremely rare to see.

JILL ANNIE: We always do good when under pressure, so we're good with this. We've been through enough so we know how to deal with pressure, and this is what we trained for when we work at hotels in our everyday life.

SANDOVAL: Right. Thank you so much for taking the time and for shifting into rescue mode. I'll let you have your delicious dinner.

JILL ANNIE: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Thank you so much for your time.

Ana, you do get those stories, right? Their spirits are certainly high, there is some laughter, there are smiles, but, yes, there's also some concern, right?

[21:15:01]

There are people that are wondering how they're going to be able to make it home. I live in Brooklyn. That's a big question, right? It's either the traffic or with the subway lines, how will some of the people actually move?

There are some subway lines that we hear that are operating. Some of the bus service discontinued. Some of them are completely packed with people. So in the meantime, the best recommendation to a lot of people are getting is simply just soak this in, take this in, stay in a safe place, and if you can, find a cool place to wait this out until the lights get back on again.

CABRERA: For a lot of these tourists, it's just adding to their story, their visit to New York City. Now, they have another thing and they can go tell their friends when they get back, remember when.

As I look behind you, Polo, I can't help but notice. It seems like there are a lot of people packed on the sidewalks. Are people just sort waiting outside buildings to see when they may be able to go back in? Are they more just looking, kind of lookie-loos (ph), looking to see what's going on outside? What's the sense?

SANDOVAL: It's really a combination of both, right? A little while ago, just before you came to us, I spoke to this gentleman, this young man, Daniel, from the U.K. He's never been to the United States. He landed here just a couple days ago. So these are his first two days in the United States.

This is certainly part of the experience now for him. He has his camera in hand. He's basically taking shots and soaking all of this in because he does understand the significance of this in a city like New York that has the reputation of being a city that doesn't sleep. To see it in that condition or actually seeing it in that state is certainly something that is fascinating to many.

So, yes, to answer your question, many people, that's all they can do is basically walk down the sidewalk, talk to each other, check out the sights, snap a picture or two and hold on to the story, because it is something they won't be forgetting any time soon.

CABRERA: Okay, Paolo Sandoval for us in New York, in midtown Manhattan, when the power is still out, going on two hours now. With this power outage affecting some 42,000 customers at last check, the last update from Con Edison, as they're working to restore power and identify exactly what went wrong.

Stay with us. You're watching CNN. Much more of our live coverage just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: More on our breaking news tonight, a crippling power outage in New York City leaving more than 45,000 people in the dark in midtown Manhattan and the upper west side, and even where we are, in fact. We've seen flickers, the lights went out.

[21:20:01]

We're on backup generators, no lights, no air conditioning on this hot July night for some people around Times Square area, in the theaters that have had to now shut down tonight, no productions and certain Broadway shows.

Ironically, tonight is the 42nd anniversary of the famous 1977 blackout. We know some people have been trapped in elevators. The New York City Police and Fire Department are still working to get all of them out and to monitor what they call crowd control.

A short time ago, I had a chance to speak with the New York City Mayor and democratic presidential candidate, Bill de Blasio. He's not in the city tonight. He's campaigning in Waterloo, Iowa. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY): Ana, we are getting the preliminary reports, what it appears to be as a transmission problem. Con Ed in New York City is working to address it now. We hope to have news soon on when power will be restored.

Your numbers are right. At this moment, the information we have is about 40,000 customers affected. All of our first responders have been deployed now, so folks who are in elevators will be responded to by our Fire Department, our Police Department.

So this situation is being addressed very rapidly, a lot of personnel being sent to the west side of Manhattan to address it. Our first Deputy Mayor is on the scene, our Emergency Management Commissioner.

But what it appears to be, Ana, is a specific transmission problem and that hopefully means that it can be resolved in a relatively quick time.

CABRERA: When you say a specific transmission problem, you Tweeted out that there was a manhole fire. Is that believed to be the cause?

DE BLASIO: We're still getting more information. And this is very early on in the situation, Ana. So we're waiting to get all of the facts. But what I'm trying to make clear is it's something within the normal electrical grid, something obviously didn't work, but no other kind of external influence here. This appears to be something that went wrong in the way that they transmit power from one part of the city to another to address demand. Con Ed is going to give us an update again soon on resolving it.

But in the meantime, our focus is making sure that anyone has immediate needs, our first responders will be getting to them right away.

CABRERA: So are you confident nothing nefarious is going on here?

DE BLASIO: At this point, and, Ana, very important to say when we're an hour or so into a situation, we should never overstate the facts. But I've talked to our Police Commissioner and our Deputy Commissioner who handles counterterrorism. From what we're seeing at this moment, this is simply a mechanical problem, and one, again, that sounds like it is addressable in a reasonable period of time.

CABRERA: Do you know, has Con Edison identified exactly what the problem is?

DE BLASIO: I don't have the details, but I know that they know where the problem occurred in their system. It is there in the west side of Manhattan where it occurred. To the best of my understanding, one of the lines between some of their substations had a problem. But at this point, limited even though it is a busy part of the city as you indicated, it is limited to that one part of the city. And hopefully from everything we're seeing, it will stay right there.

CABRERA: I mean, you said it's limited, but initial reports were 20,000 people without power, then it was 27,000 people without power, then it was 40,000 people without power. Now, it's 42,000 people without power. It seems like it's still growing. If it's limited and they've identified what it was, why are the numbers still going up?

DE BLASIO: Ana, I think the point is, again, everything is preliminary information. We should be clear about this. Until all is looked at, we can give all the facts, I don't want to overstate anything. What I do know at this point is it's a limited part of Manhattan, not something that at least at this moment seems to have any impact beyond the west side of Manhattan. That's still a real problem but it does seem to be contained.

CABRERA: And we're talking about high rise buildings, streets that are always congested, subway systems, mass transit used by millions of people. How often do you prepare for something like this? How do you do it?

DE BLASIO: It's rare, Ana, I have to say. We -- you know, we prepare all the time. We have in the Office of Emergency Management that prepares with Fire Department, with Police Department for exactly these kinds of scenarios. But I have to tell you, blackouts have become pretty rare in New York City. I'm hopeful again this is something that will be a very limited duration.

But, no, we used to have a fair number of them. And lately, certainly in the six years I've been mayor, they've been very rare in the scheme of things.

CABRERA: Are you planning to return to New York City?

DE BLASIO: I'm going to get more information in the next hour or so, and we'll adjust my schedule accordingly depending on what I hear.

CABRERA: What are your biggest concerns right now?

DE BLASIO: My biggest concern initially was to make sure that there was no foul play. And, again, until everything is resolved, everything is looked at, we can never say anything definitively. But at this moment, it appears to be a mechanical issue.

[21:25:02]

That's the first concern I had to have. The NYPD confirmed to me and obviously working with our federal partners that what we're seeing is something mechanical.

The next concern, of course, is for anyone in a situation where they need immediate help, and that's the folks in the elevators, especially, I understand there's two subway trains as well, that help is going to right now. They have air conditioning. They have lights on, I'm told. And those passengers will be gotten off those trains immediately. Those are the folks I'm concerned about first. But then, of course, we're going to do everything we can with Con Ed to get that power back on.

CABRERA: It's so unusual to see New York City in the dark, and that's exactly what we're seeing right now.

While you're on the road, who is the point person in charge in New York City on the ground right now?

DE BLASIO: First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, who is going to the scene as we speak. Our Police Commissioner, obviously, Jimmy O'Neill, our Emergency Management Commissioner, Deanne Criswell, all those folks are attending to the issue right now.

CABRERA: What do you think about this coming 42 years to the day of the famed New York blackout of 1977?

DE BLASIO: I'll tell you, that was one of the most difficult days in terms of -- nothing compares to a 911, but for a day in the everyday life of New Yorkers, that one lives in legend, because it was so shocking and it was in the middle of the night. You know, folks were so scared. That was something we all remember. My wife was on a subway train, in fact, stuck between stations in the Bronx when it happened.

We haven't seen anything like that in a long, long time. Thank God. Again, hopefully here we have a situation that can be handled, you know, quickly and really limit the number of people affected and the impact, and just get things back to normal quickly.

CABRERA: I mean, for those who have left their apartments or their hotel rooms or their grocery store, wherever they were and gone outside, because they don't know what else to do, what do you tell them? What should New Yorkers do right now if they're affected by this blackout?

DE BLASIO: Well, we're going to get -- yes. Ana, first of all, we're going to get information out to people constantly. I wanted to be with you here to give people facts as we know them at this minute. We're going to be getting information out constantly over the next few hours.

The most important thing is to take care of folks who have immediate needs, other folks, if they think it's important to get out of the building and get outside, and it may be more comfortable outside than in those buildings right now, that makes sense, the rest of the city, obviously, the rest of Manhattan operating normally.

But what we want to do is get down to the bottom of how long it's going to take to fix it and get that word out to people immediately, and then we'll be able to give them some bigger instruction about how to handle the coming hours.

CABRERA: OK. We want to get that word out. As soon as you have any information, please let us know. We know you have a lot to tend to right now. Mayor Bill de Blasio, we appreciate you taking the time. Thank you.

DE BLASIO: Thank you, Ana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And now, we have a new update from the NYPD Counterterrorism Twitter handle. They are reporting Con Edison is currently working to restore power in the west side of Manhattan. Power outage, according to NYPD, was due to a manhole fire. NYPD and FDNY are currently responding to calls in that area. Please remain calm and stay safe. NYPD units remain deployed at key locations in New York City. So, again, they're still working to restore power to more than 45,000 customers currently in the dark in Manhattan tonight.

You're watching CNN, more of our live coverage on the other side. We'll have a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:30:00]

CABRERA: Just in to CNN as we continue our breaking news coverage of this power outage affecting more than 45,000 customers in New York City, the Governor now putting out a statement calling for an investigation, calling this power outage unacceptable.

Let me read you this statement from the Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Earlier this evening, a widespread blackout occurred as a result of an issue with a transmission line in midtown Manhattan and part of the upper west side, leading approximately 45,000 customers without power. The power outages disrupted subway service on the A, C, D, F and M lines. However, no passengers are stranded on trains or in MTA elevators and there are no reports of injuries at this time. That is all good news.

He says, I have directed the State Police, the MTA and the Public Service Commission to personnel and resources to aggressively respond to this incident and work to restore power as soon as possible. We are in constant communication with Con Ed, who has an effort underway to begin restoration of power by midnight tonight.

It is now 9:32 here in New York City. The Governor is saying they hope to have power restoration underway by midnight.

And he goes on to say, well, fortunately, no injuries occurred as a result of this incident. The fact that it happened at all is unacceptable. I am directing the Department of Public Service to investigate and identify the exact cause of the outages to help prevent an incident of this magnitude from happening again. Until the recovery is complete, we will continue to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety and security of New Yorkers.

That's the latest from the Governor, Andrew Cuomo, hoping to restore power by midnight and saying that he wants an investigation into how this could happen. The power outages are affecting restaurants, shops, tourist attractions all forced to close. One of the most iconic parts of New York, Broadway has been forced to cancel shows. That sent hundreds of disappointed audience members pouring into the streets outside. Take a look at this, this video from earlier this evening, as the sun was setting, a lot of these people now just waiting to see what's next.

Those cancellations did not stop, however, one group of actors from performing. We want to show you an amazing moment from the cast of a Broadway musical, Come From Away, along with those in other theaters, their show was cancelled, so they took it outside.

Again, that's from the cast of Come From Away on Broadway living up to the old adage, the show must go on, blackout or not.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is with us now from the streets of Manhattan. Polo, that was a fun moment. But I'm sure at this point, a couple hours later, people are starting to say what's up. Update us on what's going on where you are.

SANDOVAL: Yes. It seems like it's come in stages, right? There was certainly some concern in the beginning, and then as people begin to get word that there is no sort of foul play involved, and it's really -- that there's -- as they get to hear more about what actually happened, there's concern.

But now they've reached that point where now they're wondering, okay, how long is this going to last. And as you begin to hear from people here on their -- certainly some heart breaks on people who didn't catch your show, and then some people who came here to celebrate, including this lovely family who is joining us from St. Louis, is that correct? Visiting New York City, is this your first time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's my son's first time, it's my second time.

SANDOVAL: But it is your first time visiting the city in a partial blackout?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SANDOVAL: So tell me a little bit about what's -- we'll wait for this fire truck to pass through. Tell me a little bit about what's going through your mind right now. You're staying at a hotel right behind us on the 34th floor?

[21:35:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're staying at the London and we can't even go up to our room. We don't have cell phone batteries, we're out of everything. So we're like trying to stay together because we can't charge our phones, we're out of --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, one of us has 47 percent. So --

SANDOVAL: Collectively, you have 47 percent cell phone battery level.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our chargers are up in our room that's on the 34th floor and then we could only walk to the second floor. They're not allowing people to go any higher.

SANDOVAL: And then the question becomes, where would you even plug them in if you can't find one of these businesses that would be able take you in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

SANDOVAL: So what comes next? It is roughly 9:30 here in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're going to hang out in Times Square and maybe --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we'll be hopeful. I think it's going to come back.

SANDOVAL: So you're hopeful that you won't have to lug up 34 flights?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually, I don't even know if they're letting people do that. They said only to the second floor.

SANDOVAL: So were you upstairs when things went down?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we've been out all day, thinking we could finally go back to our room to relax and get our phones charged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A friend of ours who lives here alerted us and said that, you know, there's no power in midtown. So they're going to Connecticut and we're -- you know, we said we'll just give it a try over here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have anything else to do but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hoping that we'll have power.

SANDOVAL: So you'll ride it out for now, wait until tonight, hopefully there's an elevator working to take you up to the 35th floor to get those chargers to get back on line?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be nice.

SANDOVAL: How long are you in New York City?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until Monday. We also have two more kids that are out with their friends from here. We have no contact with them.

SANDOVAL: How is that as a mom for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been talking about that. We don't know. We're kind of waiting (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We will go to my son. He's got 47 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hopefully they'll call him until that lasts.

SANDOVAL: Good for the kids, bad for mom and dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're a little concerned.

SANDOVAL: We certainly -- all kidding aside, we certainly hope that that works out.

But then finally as we look up 7th Avenue into darkness and midtown Manhattan, what goes through your head, I'll talk to you, my friend, as you see this side here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, it looks post-apocalyptic. It's scary, no lights, nothing, really dark, not what I expected from New York.

SANDOVAL: That it never happens, right, and in New York City.

Again, collectively, you all have how much percent of battery?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 47 plus 1, 48.

SANDOVAL: 48 percent. Let's make it last, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SANDOVAL: Folks, thank you so much for talking to us live on CNN, best of luck to you all. And congratulations by the way on that Stanley Cup win. That's why we're here, right?

There you go, Ana. It gives you an insight. Yes, there's a lot of questions being asked here, yes, there's plenty of concern, but, ultimately, both New Yorkers and tourists are going to make the best of it.

CABRERA: And, yes, they are with laughter and everything, just going with the flow. Polo Sandoval reporting for us.

I have an update now from a Tweet from Mayor Bill de Blasio getting back to who is affected and the potential cause of all of this. He writes, the blackout is between West 42nd Street to 72nd Street from the Hudson River to as far as 5th Avenue. NYPD has confirmed that there is no foul play. This was a mechanical issue. NYPDA and FDNY are responding to people with the most urgent needs, especially those stuck in elevators.

That was from the Mayor just moments ago. Again, he is campaigning in Iowa tonight, but obviously in close contact with officials right here in New York City as they work to restore power to a city in the dark right now. Many parts of Manhattan, especially some of those busy tourist attractions around Broadway, around Times Square, around Radio City, around Carnegie Hall, some of those iconic places.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll have much more as we continue to follow this developing story here on CNN. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:40:00]

CABRERA: We're back with a breaking news, large parts of midtown Manhattan are experiencing power outages tonight and it's affecting all parts within (ph) summer Saturday night. Take a look at this video. We have concert goers enjoying a New York City concert at Madison Square Garden with mega super star Jennifer Lopez when the power suddenly went out. It didn't seem to dampen the mood as the audience continued to clap and cheer. Let's see if we can see the moment.

Okay, so this was after the power went out, I'm told. I want to bring in someone who is at this concert, CNN's own Alexa Miranda. She's joining us now by phone.

Alexa, take us through what happened.

ALEXA MIRANDA, CNN SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR NETWORK BOOKING: Hi. So we were -- Jennifer Lopez was about to start her fourth song, and they were about to get the party started, so to speak, and the power just went out. And the dancers were left on stage, Jennifer was about to come out, and everybody was just sitting there waiting to see what happens next. And within about 30 seconds, it was pretty clear that this had to do with the power outage happening.

CABRERA: Are you still at the concert? What's happening now?

MIRANDA: We've actually exited Madison Square Garden. The MSG's electrical engineer team came on the loud speaker and announced that everyone needed to calmly and quietly exit the building for security reasons. And people started getting up and exiting the building. I mean, the house was packed. This venue holds 20,000 people. And it was (INAUDIBLE) Jennifer Lopez's concert.

And, you know, people obviously are walking out and disappointed that this is happening. They were here. They were ready to see her. There was really, really high energy in the Garden today and, you know, a lot of disappointed fans here tonight.

CABRERA: No doubt about it. And how has though security reacted to all this?

MIRANDA: I'm sorry. Can you say that one more time?

CABRERA: I know you're with a lot of people around you as you're still dealing with this situation that's an ongoing situation.

[21:45:02]

When you talk about having to evacuate tens of thousands of people from a venue like this, how did that go? How did security handle this?

MIRANDA: I have to say it was pretty orderly. People simply got out of their seats and exited the nearest, you know, stairway. And everybody made their way out to the nearest exit. They were also guiding people to the nearest exit. You know, people were not rowdy, everything seemed orderly and organized. I would have thought it would have been a little bit more chaotic. But it wasn't.

You know, I came to the concert tonight, I brought my mother with me because we're big J. Lo fans. And my mom hasn't seen a concert in years and this was supposed to be the big one for us. And it's just not that, you know, this was a power outage like we have. And we haven't had one since 2003, I think. So this is really something.

CABRERA: Yes, it's very unexpected. And I know power outages happen all around the country all the time. And yet when it happens in New York City because of just how many people and the infrastructure that we have here, it does seem to have a big impact when it hits Manhattan.

Thank you, Alexa, for your update and sharing your experience with us. We know a lot of others, tens of thousands, were in that concert and are now thinking, when can I get my money back when I see that next concert.

I'm still trying to get a better sense too of just how large this outage is, because we have the Mayor on one hand Tweeting that this goes from 42nd up to 72nd. But I know Madison Square Garden, for example, is in the 30s. So that would be, you know, a bigger area. We're in the 30s here at Hudson Yards, and we've had power outages here and been affected as well by all of this.

Let's go to somebody who maybe can shed some light. Thomas Von Essen is with us. He was the New York City Fire Department Commissioner for many years, including during September 11th.

Commissioner Von Essen, the NYPD says no foul play, this was caused by a manhole fire. What does that mean, manhole fire?

THOMAS VON ESSEN, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, you know, it all made sense up until the latest report that the Garden was affected also is kind of scary. Because, you know, from 50th Street to 70th Street, isolated from the Hudson River to the 5th Avenue is one thing. Once you drop down now to 7th Avenue and the Garden, you wonder if Con Ed has got control of it. And I think there's going to be a press conference in a little while.

And I think Con Ed will be able to give everybody a better briefing on whether or not they're able to control and isolate it and bring it back. Those folks that are stuck outside of the hotel are hoping to get back in there in the next hour or a couple of hours, and I hope that's the case.

The Fire Department dispatchers are going crazy. I know that they're really busy. They're doing a great job. But trying to get as many of the units to buildings where the elevators are stuck, it's real warm weather, when you lose air conditioning, and you're stuck in an elevator, especially if it's crowded, it's really -- it could be threatening to folks that are older and don't have that -- are healthy enough to withstand it, you know.

We also have Emergency Management, does a great job in this time also because they have lists of all the people that need electric, and they know when they try to get there when electric is lost. So you have police, fire, our guys are all running around nuts right now trying to help as many people as they can. And if this spreads, it becomes a bigger and bigger problem, of course. It makes sense.

CABRERA: And, Tom, we're looking at aerials right now over New York City provided by our affiliate, WABC. It really does gives us a sense of the breadth of this outage and it's eye opening to try to look more closely and not see New York City lit up.

I mean, this is a city that never sleeps, right? And yet it's in the dark right now. And the extent of this outage may not be known just yet. As we pointed out, they thought it was a more limited area. We haven't received a new update from Con Ed since the last one, in which they said, 45,000 plus customers in the dark. It all started a couple of hours ago in which they said 20,000 customers didn't have power. Those numbers continue to grow and the area continues to grow.

I'm looking on social media right now and seeing people who said that somebody lost power at West 37th and 10th Avenue. They just lost power within the last several minutes. You said the fact that it may be a bigger area is even more concerning and in what way concerning in your mind that they maybe don't know the actual cause?

VON ESSEN: Only because it overwhelms the system. And it is so warm and there are so many tourists in town, people in the hotels. We've got great systems. We've got a lot of extra power generation. We've got a lot of secondary power.

[21:50:00]

You saw the evacuation in Madison Square Garden. That doesn't happen orderly if you don't have a lot of secondary power that came on, all that emergency lighting came on. That makes a lot of difference. People are able to get out of these places safely. The hotels have good stairwells. They have emergency lighting. I mean, you know, a lot of them have backup generators for all kinds of other services. You can't do everything you normally do, and lose a lot of air conditioning and have to shut down things that use that much more energy. But we have -- even when we have a blackout, we're not totally blacked out. There's people -- there's a lot of emergency lighting that's going on.

But if it spreads, you know, it just -- not that we can't handle it, but it just -- it becomes tougher and tougher for fire, police, emergency, medical service, everybody.

CABRERA: Quickly, if you will, Tom, what's your best advice for those who are affected right now to stay safe?

VON ESSEN: Well, it's different for everybody, you know? Those hotel folks, they're going to hang out in Times Square, that's great. You know, if you're someone who needs air conditioning because you have trouble, respiratory problems and you're on 12th floor of an apartment building, hopefully, you know, you can get word to some folks to get some help because you can only go maybe three or four hours without getting some comfort.

So everybody's situation is different. Hopefully, people have plans in place where they have people look out for them, friends, relatives, people in the building, and try to get word. And as you heard people say before, if you don't have a real emergency, try not to bother. If you're just warm and you're uncomfortable, don't be bothering the emergency services because they are really busy right now trying to help people that are in more desperate need.

CABRERA: OK. Thank you so much, Thomas Von Essen. We appreciate you joining us and offering your insight and expertise.

A quick break, we'll be right back with much more on this ongoing power outage in New York City.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It's breaking news right now on CNN. Much of Manhattan is in the dark, no lights, no electricity. It's a blackout. Look at these pictures. This is the city that never sleeps. This area is normally completely lit up. Tens of thousands of people though now without power in New York City, mostly in the midtown part of the city, around Times Square, around Broadway, around Radio City, Carnegie Hall, around Central Park.

[21:55:04]

It's all results, we're told, of a manhole fire.

We're staying on top of this story but we also need to check on Tropical Storm Barry. Barry roared ashore from the Gulf of Mexico into Louisiana as a category one hurricane earlier today before weakening, but the worst may still be yet to come. Forecasters are telling people along the entire Gulf Coast that flood waters are coming and rain could be dumping and those floodwaters could remain high well into next week.

Let's get right to Meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. Chad, what more can you tell us?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is a real head-scratcher here, Ana. This storm has stayed offshore almost all day, even though the eye or the center is now onshore, the heaviest rainfall has remained off, except for one band that moved over New Orleans about an hour ago, even some tornado warnings to the east of New Orleans about an hour ago or so.

But right now, 50 miles per hour, going to be down probably, I would say, to 45 by the 11:00 advisory. We'll see. I don't see much spin here.

But still rain in the Gulf, a lot of rain in the Gulf, heavy rain in the Gulf that refuses to come onshore, and that's great news, because that is removing the amount of rainfall that we're going to see every time another thunderstorm pops up in the Gulf and it rains over the water, it means it's not raining over land.

Now, there are still some storms up near Slidell and a few of those up to the north and some of the northern parishes may spin for a while. There may be more tornadoes along the area. But for now, I think we're going to be doing okay. There will still be heavy rain.

This is the forecast radar. This is what the radar should look like for a computer model's thinking for the rest of the night. More rain coming through Baton Rouge, Morgan City, New Orleans, so, yes, there's more weather coming through. But even as I see this, this is five or six inches, not 20. That's good news.

CABRERA: Good news. Chad Myers, thank you for that update.

A quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

The breaking news right now on CNN, much of Manhattan is in the dark right now on this Saturday night. It's been more than three hours of little lights, no electricity, no air conditioning across a very large swath of Manhattan, the busiest part of New York City. The famous electric billboards in Times Square, many of them are in the dark.

[22:00:03]

Theaters closed their doors.