NEW YORK, N.Y. — A lightning strike over Central Brooklyn in New York on Friday morning cut electricity to thousands of Con Edison customers and left traffic lights dark across much of Flatbush, city officials said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a Friday update that roughly 4,500 Con Edison customers had lost power because of the strike. The outage stretched across parts of Flatbush, East Flatbush and Kensington, cutting service to homes and businesses alike.
Officials listed the ZIP codes hit as 11226, 11234, 11236, 11210 and 11203. The mayor said the city was getting generators to schools that lost power and sending help to manage traffic at intersections where the signals went out.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management told drivers to handle any dead traffic light as an all-way stop, coming to a full halt and yielding before moving on unless emergency personnel direct otherwise.
Walkers were urged to stick to crosswalks, check every direction and hold off on crossing until cars have stopped. Cyclists were asked to slow down, be ready to stop and give pedestrians in crosswalks the right of way. Officials also warned people on foot never to count on an approaching driver stopping for them, while the emergency office worked with Con Edison on the disruption.
Con Edison sent crews to look into the failure, size up the damage and begin bringing customers back online. A utility spokesperson said power was back in the area by 11:30 a.m.
The outage made the morning commute harder for people on foot and behind the wheel, since key intersections across the neighborhood lost their signals during the busy hours.
Section: More New York NY crime news
Filed under: New York NY Traffic News
