The Slatest

YouTube Is Telling Us What Twitter Can’t Right Now

The facade of an apartment building collapsed October 29, 2012 in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan

Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Given the storm-induced chaos going on in Manhattan and elsewhere at the moment, it’s pretty difficult to pull together a complete picture of just how much damage Superstorm Sandy is wreaking on New York City. One second, CNN is reporting that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange is under 3 feet of water. The next, reporters on Twitter are citing sources refuting that report. One minute a sourced tweet is telling us the NYC subway will be closed for the week. The next, we’re hearing that report is false.

So instead, for now, those of us outside New York City are either stuck watching cable news reporters stand in the middle of flooded streets, or we’re left to turn to YouTube. Here’s a sampling of what the latter has to offer in terms of painting a picture of New York City.

A Con Edison transformer exploding on the Lower East Side:

The river flooding the streets of Stuyvesant Town in the East Village:

A facade falling off a building in Chelsea:

And an electrical fire in Queens: