MANHATTAN — Chelsea residents woke up to icy apartments Friday morning when an underground cable malfunctioned and knocked out power to about 750 customers, officials and neighbors said.
The outage, which occurred at 7 a.m., affected about 10 buildings on West 30th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, a Con Ed spokeswoman.
"I was underneath the covers under my parka," said Howard Oshrin, a 55-year-old tenant on 30th Street.
"I'm scared. I have three buildings over here. It's going to get frozen water tanks and explode the pipes," said Tim Kurti, a super for several buildings on the affected block.
Kurti got 110 texts from tenants as of 11 a.m., he said.
Crews were on the scene working to restore power by Friday afternoon or evening, a spokeswoman said.
Con Ed was still investigating the cause of the outage, though the spokeswoman said it did not stem from the cold because it appeared to be a malfunctioning underground cable.
The utility initially said that 650 customers were without power. Crews got more accurate readings at the scene and revised that number about an hour later, a spokeswoman said.
For more information about outages, check the utility company's outage map.
