To wake without electricity or cell phone connections in one of the world's most vibrant cities is a shock. For about 750,000 New Yorkers, that was the situation Tuesday and will continue to be the fact for the coming days as Con Edison, the power company, tries to reconnect the lower third of Manhattan after the waterlogged superstorm Sandy slammed the Big Apple on Monday and Tuesday.
It could take five to seven days or more for electricity to be restored. New York is a tough city and it takes a lot to rattle its people. But Sandy hit the city in its heart, closing down theatres, Wall Street and the entire transport system and killing at least ten people.
In some of the subway stations, rain filled the tunnels up to the boarding platforms or even to the top of entry stairs. A 4.2-metre surge pushed over the sea walls at the height of the storm. An estimated 74 kilometres of the subway system were under water, a transit official told ABC news.
But New Yorkers pushed on. Through the dark hours of Tuesday morning, an incredible rescue effort at New York University Hospital saw teams of nurses and doctors carrying premature infants down nine floors to awaiting ambulances, all the while pumping air into their lungs, broadcast coverage showed.
The generators at New York University Langone Medical Center failed. According to video footage, ambulances lined up around the block through the night to transport one after another of the patients to hospitals with electricity. "During the darkness of the storm, I think we also saw what's brightest in America," US President Barack Obama said, referring to the evacuation.
As the wind calmed down, New Yorkers on foot filled the sidewalks on Tuesday, even if business had come to all but a standstill. Grappling over cabs tested tempers as five or six people fought over a single taxi. Walking seemed easier. Eerily, in keeping with the ghostly atmosphere of late October as Halloween approaches on Wednesday, a long walk from Battery Park, at 14th street, north to 48th street showed that no one had electricity. The shops were mostly shuttered.
A search for electricity outlets to recharge a cellphone went unfulfilled. The only alternative was an artifact from the 20th century - a phone booth - which swallowed one coin (25 cents) after another until the needed phone call was made and the coins ran out. Miraculously, in a city that has a reputation for vandalising public property, the phone worked.
By 3 pm, under heavy, rainy skies, the streets were already turning dark. Perhaps there were phone batteries in Grand Central station? But the entries were barricaded, closed down along with the subway that normally carries 4 million people a day. For this resident of an apartment in New York's darkened quarter, there was no running water. Already, 400,000 New Yorkers had been evacuated from low-lying regions of the city. That number could grow as people living in New York's darkened quarter seek refuge - and running water - elsewhere.