Watch the moment Manhattan went dark: Extraordinary time-lapse video shows how New York was plunged into darkness as Sandy struck
- The video was captured from the Northside Piers Towers in Brooklyn
- It condenses two days of the superstorm's massive strike on the nation's biggest city
By LYDIA WARREN
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Captured from the Northside Piers Towers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the video condenses two days of the superstorm’s massive strike on the nation’s biggest city into just two minutes.
The south-pointing camera begins filming in the early hours of Monday morning and captures the neon-dotted Lower Manhattan as it awakes – and as howling winds begin to rattle through.
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The unmistakable skyline of New York the night before Hurricane Sandy hit is shown at the opening of the timelapse video
Dawn breaks over New York on the morning the superstorm hit
The video shows clouds gathering above the city as the hurricane comes in land
When the day begins, grey clouds wash over the city and leave the camera flecked with raindrops.
As night draws in, the city becomes illuminated once more, as apartment blocks, high rises and the Williamsburg Bridge turn on their lights for the evening.
Yet just moments later, around 8.40pm on Monday, the lights suddenly snap off. The city that never sleeps becomes cloaked in darkness, with only faint car lights seen flickering around the city’s perimeter.
The time lapse video ends yet the darkness has not, as tens of thousands of New Yorkers now face a third night without power.
The usually-bustling streets of Soho, the Financial District, the East and West villages have remained eerily empty and quiet since the power went off, turning the popular night spots into ghost towns.
Some of the outages were sparked by an explosion at a Consolidated Edison plant on 14th Street after it became overwhelmed by floodwater, while others were due to water damage in homes and businesses.
The sky above the city begins to get gloomier as the 1,800km wide storm gets closer and closer
Rain begins to appear on the camera lens as conditions begin to worsen midway through the video
New York can be seen taking a battering from the wind and rain
The company had also pre-emptively taken two underground electrical networks out of service, which have been the first to be restored.
On Thursday, ConEd assured that power would be returned on either Friday or Saturday to the remaining 227,000 homes and businesses that went dark in Manhattan on Monday.
Throughout the week, the company has only been able to restore power to 2,000 people in lower Manhattan, just a sliver of those affected.
And the discomfort of no power will continue for homes in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, where ConEd does not expect to complete repairs for another week.
The time lapse video also shows the stark divide between power outages across Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Around 59,000 homes were left in the dark in Brooklyn, yet homes in Williamsburg, which can be seen in the footage, were largely unaffected, despite being just across the bridge.
The video, created by SMvideoChan, was uploaded to YouTube, where it has already viewed more than 1.2 million times.
Conditions worsen and New York can be seen taking a battering from the wind and rain
The video shows New York lit up just seconds before power was cut and the city was plunged into darkness
While one half of the city's iconic skyline is almost completely dark, lights are still visible on the left hand side of the picture
Now watch the video here...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226528/Time-lapse-video-reveals-moment-Manhattan-plunged-darkness-Hurricane-Sandy-barrelled-through.html#ixzz2B43ZAWCh
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