Dramatic Photos Of Chaos And Looting During New York's Notorious Blackout 37 Years Ago Today

Sunday marks the 37th anniversary of the infamous blackout that led to looting and rioting all around New York City. That date, July 13, 1977, was a time of extreme strife and tension in America's largest metropolis.

3,800 arrests were made, according to the New York Times, and more than $1 billion in damage was recorded, with some of the worst coming in the Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. The FDNY reported 1,037 fires throughout the city, with at least 50 being very serious, according to The Times.

The root cause of the blackout was a series of lightning strikes occurring between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. that cut electricity off from two major power plants. The chaos would soon follow.

LaGuardia and JFK were closed, and the subways were evacuated.

''The looters were looting other looters, and the fists and the knives were coming out,'' Carl St. Martin, a neurologist in Forest Hills, Queens, recalled years later, according to the Times.

Here are some of the shocking photos of the eery darkness and mass chaos: