New York City's abandoned streets are starting to resemble scenes from an apocalyptic movie.
Eerie images surfaced as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the United States, with cases in New York state surging to 122,000.
New York based photographer Phil Penman captured the now-desolate streets of NYC, which normally are filled with pedestrians, cyclists, cars, and street vendors.
But as fears of coronavirus keep New Yorkers inside their homes, the return of normalcy seems to be in the distant future.
As NYC's virus death toll surpasses 1,500, more people are social distancing to help prevent the spread of the the deadly virus.
Iconic staples of NYC – Union Square, the Staten Island Ferry, Wall Street, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, Madison Square Park, the Theatre District, FDR Drive, subway stations and the city's monumental bridges – appear lonelier than ever.
Penman told the Daily Mail: “It's like being in a movie that's not entertaining.
“The city that's normally hustling and bustling is now just empty. Devoid of everything.
“People are walking around and nobody is saying a word, they keep their heads down and now it's even scarier because everyone is wearing a mask.”
The ghostly black-and-white images taken by Perman captures the sadness, confusion, and fear that has now taken over ‘The City That Never Sleeps.'
Some of his photos captured plumes of steam rising up from the empty city streets.
Vacant benches, mask-wearing people, old newspapers, bikes, and empty shopping carts can also be spotted in his cleverly-taken photographs.
Penman told the DailyMail: “After 9/11 you'd walk around the streets and people were everywhere.
“Everyone was doing their bit to try and help out, you would walk down West Side Highway and volunteers were giving water out.
“But with this, you don't see anybody.”
“It's funny cause I used to go out and I would purposely wait until when it was quiet to take pictures because I didn't want too many people in the photos and now of course before there's nobody anywhere.”
hurches, gyms, restaurants, and anything deemed a non-essential business have closed their doors until further notice.
“I always kind-of looked at New York as being a person. I just miss it,” Penman said.
As more than 701,000 US jobs were cut in March during the coronavirus crisis and the worst is yet to come – New York City won't be attracting crowds anytime soon.
Millions of workers have had hours slashed, been furloughed, or lost their jobs entirely as non-essential businesses have been forced to temporarily close.
The social distancing guidelines for America have been extended until April 30.
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Source:TheSunUS