Halloween's off! New York cancels festive parade for first time in 39 years after power cuts and flooding turns city into ghost town

Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD shut down parade after Greenwich Village plunged into darkness on Monday night
Parade has run for four decades and is attended by 60,000 in flamboyant costume

PUBLISHED: 00:49 EST, 31 October 2012 | UPDATED: 05:41 EST, 31 October 2012

New York City's long-running Halloween parade has been cancelled for the first time in 39 years due to the catastrophic damage caused by Superstorm Sandy.

The Mayor's Office and the NYPD shut down the parade which normally weaves a route through Greenwich Village - a neighborbood on the west side which remains in complete darkness this evening, more than 24 hours after power was cut off to most of lower Manhattan during fierce winds and widespread flooding.

Organizers of the parade said: 'We hope that everyone who would have come to the Parade is safe and that those who can volunteer to help out at one of the Emergency Outreach Centers near you. We will surely miss all of you!'

The show's off: The 39th Annual Village Halloween Parade, which normally weaves a route through Greenwich Village, has been cancelled (file picture)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced on Monday night he may cancel trick-or-treating in his state after the trail of destruction left by Sandy made it dangerous for many residents to venture out into the streets.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pictured in Queens on Tuesday, and NYPD shut down parade after Greenwich Village plunged into darkness on Monday

He said: 'If conditions are not safe on Wednesday for trick-or-treating, I will sign an executive order rescheduling.'

The parade, which would have begun at 6.30pm on 6th Avenue, usually attracts up to 60,000 Halloween lovers in the most outrageous costumes.

More than 50 bands playing an eclectic range of music take part along with hundreds of dancers, artists and giant puppets.

The theme of this year's parade was 'Tick Tock', tying in with the final year of the Mayan calendar which predicts the apocalypse.

Halloween looked likely to be an uncharacteristically somber affair as up and down the East Coast people come to terms with Sandy's aftermath.

Across New York and Westchester, around 811,000 people were without power - with that number reaching a staggering eight million along the Eastern Seaboard.

The outages in Manhattan have been attributed to a huge explosion at an electrical substation, which blew up when it was apparently overwhelmed by floodwater.

Traveling around the city remains difficult as it would still be four to five days before limited operation could begin on the New York subway, according to Bloomberg, with some reports estimating it might take as long as 21 days for service to become fully functioning.

Freaky: Areas of Manhattan remain in complete darkness after the city lost power on Monday night during Superstorm Sandy, with the parade route seen here blacked out