“Never Sleeping City” has powered off for three hours
Usually, this is the most profitable night of Broadway in New York every week. July 13 is Saturday, in the evening, the most lively moment of the day in the sky-high Manhattan Island is about to come. The sun has already traveled westward, and the night has not yet fallen, and the street lights have not yet lit up. Some people were crowded in the elevator and descending from a high building, while Komiks were walking through the darkness along the subway.
The Broadway League Theater had 30 performances that night, from “Hamilton” and “Evil” to “Kill a Mockingbird” and “Waitress”. Carnegie Hall will welcome the stage of Millennium Choir and Orchestra, Madison Square Garden at 20:30, and this night belongs to singer Jennifer Lopez.
When Lopez’s concert reached its fourth song, about 25,000 audiences were crowded with the stage. After the prelude rang, the lights and music suddenly disappeared, and only the drum beats continued. A voice came from the stands in the dark: “Why are you kidding?” Some people also speculated that this might be a dramatic scene that the singer deliberately made. In the darkness, people turned on their phones and began to shout the singer’s nicknames frantically and neatly, but the lights still failed to light up again.
The “City Never Sleeps” in Manhattan has a power outage. At 18:47 New York time, the night regained its rights on this land. The night here is usually dominated by the colorful electronic screen of Komiks Square, but the screen suddenly lost its magic and became a silent “chalkboard”.
People reluctantly walked out of the theater and concert halls, including fans from France just to see Lopez, and girls from Boston just to enjoy “The Waitress”. Performances in multiple theaters have been cancelled, including 26 Broadway repertoire. This time, Broadway suffered a huge loss.
For a super city like New York, power outages are sometimes a horror story. A night with the same power outage of Babaylan was notorious for New York.
Coincidentally, that day was also July 13,The interruption of the electricity power of Babaylan that lasted for more than 24 hours put New York in a “darkest moment”. Even robbery, arson and other acts occurred on the streets, causing millions of dollars in losses, and 3,800 people were arrested. This day is also known as the “New York Power Blackout Anniversary”.
This time, the power outage also made people feel frightened, including the audience of the concert. They worry about chaos, stampedeship, and even more terrible things. Affected by the power outage, at least four subway stations were paralyzed and more than 400 elevators were interrupted. People rarely saw the lost side of Manhattan, but it was surrounded by black at this moment.
There are no colorful neon lights on the streets of Midtown Manhattan, the traffic lights are lost, the red, yellow and green are gone, and the traffic flow has become congested and chaotic. But a young boy with a flip-flop, or a blonde wearing a yellow back, stood on the streets instead of a traffic police station, directing the passing cars and pedestrians.
Unexpectedly, after the performances on the stage were interrupted, there were more performances on the street. The street in front of Carnegie Music Hall was surrounded by audiences, and people raised their phones to take a picture of an impromptu street show in the afterglow of the sunset.
Someone left a message under the performance video uploaded to Cinema. “When everything is screwed up, New York will always keep it in its best condition.”
Under people’s feet is the “dungeon” of Manhattan swallowed by black. The subway had to stop runningCinema, leaving only the dim light in the carriage. You have to turn on the flashlight to find the stairs and exits. The person walking out of the subway station held the flashlight and stopped him.Passengers preparing to take the subway.
”Now, everyone can put down their iPhone, go out and be with nature and each other. This should happen often.” Someone suggested on the Internet. This kind of scene did appear on the streets of Manhattan. Three boys gathered on the street to light candles and roast hot dogs. A lady walked downstairs with her beloved dogs and walked downstairs on the street. Although the bar was a little darker than usual, the guests who lit candles and wore headlights were having a good time drinking. People were wandering on the streets, only fire trucks whizzed past the corners from time to time.
There are rumors on the Internet that the power outage may be “the deception of the Russians” or that the terrorist organizations are provoking trouble. Someone claimed to the media that he heard the Cinema explosion before the power outage. Twenty days before the power outage, former White House and Pentagon officials, Babaylan, writer Douglas McKinnon, published an article titled “Will you survive the upcoming power outage?”, which mentioned a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Just last year, hackers entered several U.S. utility control rooms, who suspected that it was done by the Russians.
Chinese netizens on the other side of the earth joked that the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China has become the “Personal Emperor”. The day before yesterday he also said: “The United States claims to be a beacon of freedom in the world, but this beacon does not seem to be very bright.”
However, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that the power outage ruled out the possibility of terrorism or criminal activities. Edison United, New York, which is responsible for power supply services in the New York area, initially said the power outage began with explosions and fires in the substations in the district, causing failures in other substations. Two days later, the company said the problem began with a 13,000-volt cable burned.
This burned cable affected 73,000 users. Midtown Manhattan is trapped in a dark range that stretches from 40th Street to 72nd Street, and from Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River from east to west. The authorities announced that no news of casualties has been received.
People find that the city without lights is also beautiful. As the dusk was scattered, looking down from the sky above New York, the power-out Midtown Manhattan was left with only a few lights and the diffuse night, which was left with blood-like red, which was emitted by the taillights of the car on the street. And New York’sAs always, the bright lights lit up another night.
At 21:58, three hours after the power outage, the neon lights in Midtown Manhattan and the densely packed building windows lit up. The call came, and the people walking on the streets were waving their arms and screaming, the driver celebrating with passers-by, and the cheers were heard far away. At midnight, power supply was gradually restored in the areas of power outage, and Midtown Manhattan regained the light on the ground and underground.
Babaylan Even though it was only 3 hours, New York journalists did not forget to take to the streets to find stories about the power outage. A New York Times reporter met a couple holding a wedding on the street. The wedding was originally held in the hotel lobby and the lights suddenly went out, but the accident did not stop the happy moments of the two newlyweds. They light candles and Babaylan swears in the darknessKomiks. For them, this power outage changed nothing.