With the parks set to reopen, the power back on in nearly all of Manhattan and the weekend providing much needed relief from traffic nightmares, parts of New York City seemed to be returning to a semblance of normalcy on Saturday.
Outside of Manhattan, though, in the hardest hit neighborhoods of Queens and Staten Island as well as along the Jersey Shore, it was just the latest day to struggle through, working to both recover and rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.
And there were still reports of long lines at gas stations, with a government survey conducted on Friday showing that nearly two-thirds of the stations in the metropolitan region were out of fuel.
The most visible sign of progress came throughout the night, as New York City, once divided between light and dark, was united again.
As of Saturday morning, only about 5,800 people in Manhattan remained without power.
Just as significant as the return of power itself was what it meant for every other aspect of the recovery, specifically transit. As the power returns, subways can start running their full routes, and one of the greatest logistical problems caused by the storm will begin to be improved.
Throughout the night Friday, as lampposts, streetlights and storefronts flickered to life, cheers could be heard across whole neighborhoods.
In Lower Manhattan, the power restoration started around 5 p.m. in the East Village. The network there, known as Cooper Square, serves about 67,000 customers between 14th and Canal Streets. The Chelsea neighborhood sparked to life about 45 minutes later, bringing back power to an additional 25,000 customers between 14th and 31st Streets on the West Side.
The next big network came back to life around 7:30 p.m., when 30,000 customers east of Fifth Avenue between 14th and 31st Streets were once again able to turn their lights on.
Throughout the night, Consolidated Edison’s crews raced to make good on a promise that company executives made to restore power to all of Manhattan before Saturday. As each network came online, they got a bit closer to getting power back to all 220,000 people below 39th Street who lost it.
By morning, they had largely succeeded. There was work to be done on the Fulton Network, which is important to the subway system as well, and 65 buildings damaged in the storm would remain without power until crews could get to them individually, a Con Edison spokesman said.
Outside Manhattan, the challenges were in some ways more difficult, with crews having to contend with thousands of lines that were mangled, damaged or ripped down in the storm. Con Ed said it could take until the end of next week to bring electricity back to all of its customers.
As of 7 a.m. Saturday, Con Edison reported approximately 280,000 customers out of service. That included 5,800 in Manhattan, 81,000 in Queens, 31,000 in Brooklyn, 31,000 on Staten Island and 25,000 in the Bronx.
In Westchester County, where 107,000 people have no power, the utility said navigating downed trees and dealing with connections cut off by limbs and branches was simply going to take more time. On Long Island, more than 430,000 customers of the Long Island Power Authority still had no power on Friday evening, or any estimate of when it would return.
In New Jersey, Public Service Electric and Gas had restored power to over a million customers by Friday morning, but nearly 600,000 still had no electricity by night. In Newark, about 100,000 customers had service restored at around 9:45 p.m., according the Mayor Cory A. Booker.
Jersey Central Power and Light had over 685,000 customers without electricity on Friday night.
In Connecticut, repairs were moving quickly. Only about 140,000 customers of Connecticut Light and Power still had no power.
With progress faster in some places than others, more crews from around the country are still arriving to help local utility companies recover.
In Manhattan, though, there was a palpable sense of relief as the lights came back on.
Ali Salah, 40, who works at his family’s deli in Chelsea, said the first thing they turned on was the coffee maker.
“Then,” he said, “we plugged in our phones.”
This past week, he added, it did not feel like he was living in New York City, but rather it was more like a small town in his native Yemen.
But when the lights came back on, he could barely contain his joy.
“Today is like New Year’s,” he said. “Like a new holiday.”
Power Returns to Lower Manhattan
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Power Returns to Lower Manhattan
