Gowanus Lounge was out-of-borough for a while yesterday, and we made a point of passing through blacked-out Astoria, where up to 80,000 people are still without power. The streets are full of Con Ed trucks, NYPD and FDNY vehicles, portable generators and traffic cops directing traffic at intersections where traffic lights are out. We saw hundreds of Con Ed employees working hard to try to get the lights working again and a couple of distribution points where the Red Cross is handing out ice and meals. Here and there on Steinway Street in Astoria, the stench of rotting garbage and food was overpowering. The scope of the outage is a bit staggering–it covers a huge area–but not as stunning as Con Ed’s deception and/or stupidity. (IE, underestimating the number of people impacted by 90 percent.) A few more pictures below and in our flickr photoset.