NEW YORK, NY - JULY 13: A large section of Manhattan's Upper West Side and Midtown neighborhoods are seen in darkness from above during a major power outage on July 13, 2019 in New York City. Thousands of New Yorkers are without power as a major outage left portions of Manhattan, including Times Square and the Upper West Side in the dark and disrupting subway service across the city. (Photo by Scott Heins/Getty Images)
The sun sets behind 42nd Street in Manhattan during a power outage in New York City on July 13, 2019. - Subway stations plunged into darkness and the billboards of Times Square suddenly flicked off as New York's Manhattan was hit by a power outage on Saturday. About 42,000 customers lost electricity in the early evening, according to the Con Edison utility, which did not give a reason for the cut. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo credit should read JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

It is known as the city that never sleeps but on Saturday night the island of Manhattan was plunged into an eery darkness. Times Square was reduced to blank billboards, the Subway was at a standstill and even Jennifer Lopez’s Maddison Square Garden concert left fans in the dark. It was strangely reminiscent to The Day After Tomorrow or a scene from Stranger Things and naturally, chaos ensued.

Reportedly due to a problem at a substation, roughly 73,000 people were left without power and for three hours at that. In an odd set of circumstances, the same issue occurred 42 years ago to the day but in true New Yorker style – or rather in an era of social media – the entire event was captured on camera. Twitter immediately blew up with spectacular images as well as humorous memes to pass the time and while many concerts and shows across the city were cancelled, the festivities were taken to the streets. Elsewhere, the resilience of the city was apparent with residents assisting in directing traffic before the power to traffic lights returned.

As the sun set over the area, its tall towers usually glittering with lights remained black and formed a bold city scape while on the ground small beacons of lights from cars, torches and sirens depicted another scene. The city is sweltering through it usual sticky summer and relief was felt when the lights as well as the all-important aircon flickered back on just after 10:30pm.

topics: life, news, new york, twitter, trending

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