Hurricane Sandy 2012: Power Outages Persist, Watch Video Of Explosion At Con Edison Plant In Lower Manhattan

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On Monday Hurricane Sandy swept through New York City, bringing widespread power outages, damaged property and high flooding in certain areas of the city. A Con Edison power plant located in lower Manhattan exploded Monday night during the hurricane, and a local resident caught the explosion on video.

Following the explosion, 19 Con Edison workers were trapped inside the power plant, according to Reuters. A rescue worker confirmed that an explosion had taken place inside the building.

The video below was shot from across the East River in Brooklyn, and shows a transformer explosion from within the power plant. The footage depicts small flashes of red light before a larger bubble of blue light expands outward.

More than 250,000 residents in lower Manhattan were left without power as of Monday night. An estimated 2.5 million New Yorkers in the metropolitan area have lost power as well.

Hurricane Sandy shattered previous New York City storm records—bringing a massive 13.88-foot surge to the lower tip of Manhattan. The previous record was held by 1960’s Hurricane Donna, which caused a 10.2-foot surge, reports ABC News.

Earlier on Monday, excessive winds left a crane dangling atop a skyscraper on West 57^th St. New York police officers and firemen were on the scene, and part of the street below was closed off as a precaution.

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg implemented a mandatory shutdown of all subways in the city at 7 p.m. Water surged through the underground transport system on Monday, causing what has been called the “worst ever disaster” for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

“The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night,” Joseph Lhota, chairman of the MTA said, according to The Telegraph.

“Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region. It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and depots,” he said.

Officials are currently working to restore the subway system.

See below for the video of the Con Edison explosion that took place in lower Manhattan last night.