As a huge swath of Manhattan was brought to a standstill late Saturday after a massive power outage, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, campaigning in Iowa, had no immediate plans to return home for damage control. Speaking to CNN from the small city of Waterloo, de Blasio attributed the blackout affecting about 40,000 ConEd customers to a “transmission problem” and “simply a mechanical problem” that he said would hopefully be resolved in a “relatively quick time.” “I’m going to get more information in the next hour or so, and we’ll adjust my schedule accordingly depending on what I hear,” he said, adding that he was in touch with emergency management officials. “All of our first responders have been deployed now, so folks who are in elevators” that have gotten stuck will be helped, he said. De Blasio also dismissed concerns that the outage may not have been accidental, saying there was nothing to indicate “external influence” was to blame for the mayhem.
