Metropolitan Diary: The Dark City While countless New Yorkers were suffering injury, losing their homes and in some cases their lives, other New Yorkers were completely cut off from this reality. The storm broke all connections to the outside world and we were left with no news or communication. Our familiar city transformed into a foreign landscape that was deathly quiet, so dark that it felt haunted but eerily beautiful and surprising. Just beyond walking distance, visible from our roof, the Midtown lights continued shining, reminding us of how isolated we were.