Familiar with New York City? I have a question.

[dixiegrrrrl]

I read yesterday that those above 39th St. did not lose power ( or at least as much)
as those below 39th st.
Having no familarity with NYC, can anyone tell me why that may have been the case???

[stopbush]

1. Electric distribution is set up in grids in NYC. It goes down in big chunks of blocks.

Power flows in from north of the city. If you live uptown, the grid held for you. It shut down in the lower areas of the city.

The Battery sits at the end of the grid. I imagine the grid failed from the south end of Manhattan and worked its way north until it didn't fail, which looks to be around 39th street.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. ahhhhhh...gotcha. Thanks.

[speedoo]

2. Because lower Manhattan had tremendous flooding and that knocked out...

power generation facilities for the southern part of Manhattan.

[stopbush]

13. IIRC, those are power transference stations.

I think the actual power generating plants sit north of the city, The power comes into the city over high tension lines and is distributed to various transformer stations around the city who send it out to the neighborhoods.

[cthulu2016]

3. The lower part of the island is much flatter and prone to flooding.

Since the flooding damages electrical infrastructure and is hazardous in water they shut down the whole part of th grid that would be largely flooded, which worked out to 38th st.

(Where the Strand bookstore is, IIRC)

[flamingdem]

5. Flatter and lower, sealevel wise

Some is landfill I think, around Battery Park

[cthulu2016]

9. Correct. (I didn't want to say "lower" twice)

[flamingdem]

17. Did the Strand bookstore move from 12th and Broadway?

Or maybe I'm forgetting my store geography in nyc

[cthulu2016]

21. My bad. Yes, it is down there.

[Panasonic]

22. Holy shit! Not Strand's :(

Wonder if Strand got flooded - it's one of my must go to place every time I go to New York City.

Their best stuff are in the basement - half off on hardcover fictions.

I'm a bookie, I can't stand not having a book around. Currently reading "The Racketeer" by John Grisham on Kindle.

[yellerpup]

4. Storm waters from the East River

on the East side and from the Hudson River on the west washed over the low end of the island and seawater and surge effects knocked out electrical transformers that fed that area.

[titaniumsalute]

6. The transformer explosion at the ConEd plant at C and 14th St is much the reason

that Lower Manhattan lost power.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I saw that on YouTube.

Hell of a flash, I must say.

Where I come from, falling trees are the most common power outage causes.

[Golden Raisin]

12. Our wires and cabling here in Manhattan

are predominantly underground. Nonetheless, we had plenty of trees down from the sheer force of the wind. Saw several that were literally uprooted.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

7. "Lower Manhattan"

is just that, lower for one thing....But it is the southern most point of the city and is bordered by the East River on the east, the Hudson River on the west and New York Harbor on the south.... The water came rushing in, power had to be cut to prevent blow ups like the one we saw on television....

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. So, in a sense....

Upper Manhattan did not get the same combo of problems that lower Manhatten did.
I imagine the wind and rain was bad enough, tho.

[stopbush]

15. Upper Manhattan also sits higher above the Hudson and East rivers than does the south end

of the island.

I lived at 92nd & WEA for 12 years. That area probably sits 40-50 feet higher than the Hudson River's water level. The west side of Manhattan/uptown might get a lot of rain, but 1. it's fresh water, not salt water, and 2. it drains into the Hudson.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

16. Exactly...

Wall St is in Lower Manhattan....cars were floating down the street ... While the rest of Manhattan has power (or much of it does) transportation into and out of the city is a nightmare....

[vaberella]

20. The poster above me is right. I live between Broadway and Riverside (Hudson side).

I look down at the Hudson River. So water drains downward. However there was flooding all of the subway stations underground. Even the one in Harlem.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. mostly due to the explosion on 14th street

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ConEd-Outages-Blackout-Flood-Equipment-Manhattan-NYC-Sandy-Storm-Surge-176525591.html

[BowlLikeAChicken]

18. That substation,

if I'm not mistaken is across the street from one of my favorite bars Sophie's. My brother and some friends live there and I'm told they expect power back by saturday.

I don't think the Strand exists any more, last month I found an old receipt from there (pre-21st century). Also, someone who use to work there has a radio show on WBAI, which has its studios on 120 Wall st. on their website is a podcast from the last show before the power went out, its 10 minutes of what was supposed to have been an hour long show. They were commenting on how the heli-port was flooded and water was flowing down the street, they are on the 10th floor.

I'm here now in Norfolk, va (not by choice) and everything that happened in NY we thought was going to happen here. All we had was mild rain and some wind.

[vaberella]

19. That is true. I live in Harlem. We did not lose electricty.

We did however lose cable and internet for a short time. However we were unscathed.