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UPDATE 2-Blackout leaves New Yorkers sleeping in streets

(New throughout)

By Dan Burns

NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - In New York's Times Square on Friday, hundreds of tired, haggard-looking commuters left stranded by the blackout awoke from their makeshift beds, lumbering into the dim light of the rising sun.

Like the scene of a post-apocalyptic movie, some people wandered into the streets with blank stares on their faces, searching for any indication as to when full power would be restored.

More than 12 hours after the biggest North American power outage in history left huge swaths of the Northeast in sweltering darkness, much of New York and its suburbs were still without electricity. The subways were not running and many residents had no water because their electric pumps were not working.

Power grid officials called the multi-city blackout the biggest outage in North American history, dwarfing previous blackouts in 1977 and 1965.

Scattered sections of the city's electricity grid were slowly coming back on line, but officials could not estimate when power would be fully restored.

What was certain, however, was that the city's subway system, which carries 7 million passengers a day, would not be running in time for the morning commute, preventing thousands of people from getting to work.

"We hope people will heed the mayor's advice and stay home," said Paul Fleuranges, vice president of public affairs at New York City Transit.

MAKESHIFT BEDS

In midtown Manhattan, normally abuzz with early morning activity, streets remained eerily quiet. Many who were stranded without lodging overnight were still asleep on beds of newspaper, cardboard, clothing or briefcases, while others shuffled over to a handful of delis that were opening.

By dawn, power had been restored to some New York suburbs and portions of all five boroughs, according to power company officials and the mayor's office.

"We are continuing to restore power to our customers in a gradual manner," said D. Joy Faber, a spokeswoman for power company Con Edison.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg predicted Friday would be a "normal day."

The New York Stock Exchange said it would open on time for regular trading, but it was unclear whether traders would be able to get down to Wall Street.

New York's subway system was not expected to operate before afternoon at the earliest, a transit spokesman said. The system needs six or eight hours after the restoration of power to resume service.

All three airports were open, but no flights were reported arriving overnight. Some rail lines were functional. Buses and ferries, the only systems consistently operating throughout the crisis, were expected to be the reliable form of transportation. They were also expected to be mobbed.

SEEKING SANCTUARY

For thousands, though, the question Friday was not how to get to work, but how to get home after being stranded in the city overnight.

Osvaldo Trigl, who lives in Tarrytown north of the city, had been walking around since early Thursday evening. In the vicinity of Grand Central Terminal after midnight, he said: "What's most frustrating is that you can't reach your family."

At St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue, most pews were filled with stranded people -- a few snoring -- lying head to toe in the candlelight.

Thousands more had no luck finding shelter indoors.

At the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, hundreds of people were sprawled on its driveway outside locked doors, and on sidewalks, curbs and patches of grass everywhere, exhausted men, women and children rested their heads wherever they could.

A block from Grand Central, commuters lay on sidewalks with their heads on briefcases. A man walking by said: "Everybody is homeless tonight. Now you get a taste of what homelessness is like."

The city was mostly calm overnight, but sporadic incidents of looting were reported in Brooklyn, with 20 people arrested after breaking into a shoe store, five arrested for looting an equipment rental center and one for breaking into a phone store, police said.

Temperatures, which barely left the 80s F (high 20s C) overnight, were expected to soar back into the 90s F (30s C) .