Grand Central Station completely lost power for more than 30 minutes Thursday night, sinking the commuter hub into darkness and stirring confusion.
The station went dark around 8:35 p.m. and was restored shortly after 9 p.m., according to FDNY and witnesses. Firefighters evacuated five people stuck in elevators, an FDNY spokesperson said.
Trains, including the subway, Metro-North and Long Island Railroad were not disrupted, NYC Emergency Management posted on X after power was restored.
It was not immediately clear what caused the outage.
“It was out for about 45 minutes,” said a police source at the scene. “We had to rescue a few people from elevators but no one was hurt.”
”We still have no idea what happened,” the source added.
Videos posted on social media showed people walking through the darkened transit hub using their cellphones to light up the scene.
Commuters appeared largely unfazed.
“It was scary. I heard screams. People were running,” said Stacy Ruiz, who works at a food establishment downstairs. “We just sat down and waited for the power to come back.”
“People were trying to order drinks to go at the bar, but we couldn’t do anything,” Ruiz said, noting the eatery’s system went down along with the power.
“Suddenly, everything went dark,” said Kathy F., a newsstand manager who did not want her full name revealed. “But I figured it was no big deal. People just put on their cell phones for cell phone flashlights, like they were at a concert.”
”People took it really casual,” the police source said. “We asked them if they wanted to leave and they were like, ‘nah,’ and kept eating their food.”
The MTA is working to determine what happened, authorities said.
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