A major power outage early Saturday evening struck the heart of New York City, including parts of midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side, where at least 20,000 customers were reportedly affected.
The city’s transit authority tweeted that multiple stations were not operational and were being bypassed.
“We are working with Con Edison to determine the root cause of the ongoing power failure, which is affecting Midtown and the Upper West Side,” it tweeted.
A senior city official with direct knowledge of the matter says it appears the outage was caused by a transformer fire at 54th Street and West End Avenue.
FDNY has units on scene to assist and is handling calls throughout the impacted area to assist people stuck in elevators.
At NBC News’ headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Center, the outage blackened hallways and caused Nightly News to broadcast using backup generators.
This is a developing story.
