Power Outage Knocks Out Power To Thousands In Buffalo

The morning commute process for people in New York State's second-largest city can sometimes be difficult. With thousands of people traveling from all over the region into the downtown central business district, it's not uncommon to run into issues. Weather and traffic accidents always find a way to slow things down.

However, the morning of Wednesday, January 7, 2026, was especially difficult as a power outage in several parts of the city of Buffalo knocked out street lights all over downtown and parts of Buffalo's east side.

According to WKBW-TV, more than 3,000 National Grid customers were without power in the early morning hours, with most of those without power being in east Buffalo and downtown. National Grid's outage map shows power outages from Utica Street in Buffalo's Masten Park neighborhood all the way down to the Perry Projects just outside of downtown. The outages also spread down Main Street into downtown Buffalo.

A National Grid Spokesperson told WKBW-TV that there is likely an underground power issue, as all of the power lines that serve downtown are buried in various vaults under city streets.

It's unclear exactly where the issue is and what caused it, but power has been slowly being restored all morning incrementally as crews have been hard at work getting things back to normal.

With the aging infrastructure we have in Buffalo and Western New York, we may need to be prepared to have more power outages and other inconveniences to our daily lives.