Hundreds Lose Power In Astoria Amid Sweltering Heat, Thunderstorm

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A power outage left hundreds of people without electricity on an Astoria block on Thursday as sweltering heat and a thunderous rainstorm pounded the city.

The outage, on 34th Street between Broadway and 31st Avenue, left 522 households without electricity, according to a map maintained by Con Edison. Power appeared to have been restored by Thursday afternoon after persisting for most of the day.

It was caused by the "failure of an underground electrical cable," likely due to hot weather, Con Ed spokesperson Allan Drury told Patch.

The outage had begun hours earlier on Thursday morning. Con Ed's website initially suggested power would be restored by 2 p.m., though that estimate was later pushed back to 5 p.m.

"Yeah this is bad," one resident wrote on a Reddit thread devoted to the outage. "No power and I also have covid so I can’t go anywhere."

ConEd urged central Queens residents to conserve energy during the heatwave Thursday.

Residents left without air-conditioning can stop by one of the city's official cooling centers — including nearby sites like the Long Island City Library on 21st Street.

If you are affected by this blackout or experiencing other weather-related issues, contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.