SPECIAL REPORT (08:00 PM ET) - ABC August 14, 2003
SPECIAL REPORT INTRODUCTION
TED KOPPEL, ABC NEWS
(Voice Over) Ted Koppel reporting from Washington tonight. And I find it hard to believe that you haven't heard by now, but just in case you have come from some part of the country where you're having no problems and you just got home and turned on the television set, the fact of the matter is that the northeast is in deep trouble. We've got the biggest blackout, electrical blackout in the history of the United States and 50 million people are affected in New York state and Connecticut and New Jersey and Michigan and Ohio. And some people affected in Connecticut and Vermont and parts of Canada. One of the states that is affected is the state of New Jersey. And I'm joined now by the Governor of New Jersey, Governor James McGreevey. Governor, can you hear me?
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY, NEW JERSEY
Yes, Ted, thank you.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) You declared a state of emergency. Why?
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY
Well, basically, Ted, we have five counties in the northern part of the state that are without power. We thought it was necessary for three major reasons, one, obviously to ensure that all hospitals in the state of New Jersey have power, and they do. Second, there were major problems with our transportation networks. Trains between Penn Station, New York, and Newark were down. We had to deploy upwards of 500 buses, 300 buses into the Port Authority New York, literally picking people up in the street because the Port Authority was without energy. Sending an additional 200 buses to Hoboken as a people came off terminals from New York City across the Hudson River. And then under the leadership of Superintendent Fuentes of the state police, we bolstered the state police numbers by approximately 300 and deployed the national guard, upwards of 700 national guard members who will only be mobilized at the request of the Superintendent just to make sure that our streets and our neighborhoods are safe and secure as night falls.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Everybody's always happy when things are going well, Governor McGreevey, but you know who they're gonna blame if they don't. What are you most worried about?
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY
Well, I think one is the hospitals to make sure they have adequate power. Whether it is emergency rooms and hospitals. Second, is obviously, to make sure that New Jersey residents get home from New York safe and secure and that's why we deployed 500 buses about both at the ferry terminal and in New York City. And we're trying to make this, Ted, as rational a process as possible. But obviously we're literally sending 300 buses into the Port Authority. They can't move necessarily into their traditional loading and unloading docks, but they're picking people up on the streets of the Port Authority. And then with the state police, 300 increased troopers, upwards of 700 national guard to make sure those neighborhoods are safe and secure throughout those five counties in northern New Jersey.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Has anybody given you any kind of a sense of when you can expect things to begin returning to normal?
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY
We've spoken both with the grid itself as well as PSE&G which is the major power company. They're working to provide independent restoration, but it's also obviously dependent on the need throughout the grid. And they're looking at a 24-hour cycle. But yet there's been some good news. Obviously there are no fatalities reported as of yet. There are no passengers stranded on New Jersey transit trains. All passengers that were on PATH trains have been evacuated. There's a resumption of limited service right now between Penn Station, New York City, and Penn Station Newark. And basically now we're taking both incoming flights into Newark Airport as well as outgoing flights. Power is beginning to creep back on, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) I'm delighted to hear that. You said a moment ago, though, I mean my ears pricked up when you said a 24-hour cycle. What did you mean by that?
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY
Well, basically in terms of talking to the energy company, that there will be gradual restoration of power in certain areas. But we don't anticipate that there will be full restoration throughout the entirety of the five counties impacted, before approximately a 24- hour period. We just have to make sure that our hospitals have energy, we get our families home safely and our neighborhoods secure.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Governor McGreevey, you're good to take the time to talk to us. Thanks very much indeed. I hope that we make it through the next 24 hours without any problems or fatalities or injuries throughout the rest of the country.
GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY
Thank you, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Thanks very much indeed. Just parenthetically, the president, President Bush, is going to be making a statement at 8:30 Eastern time. That will be in about 25 minutes. A little bit of fresh information here. As according to the FAA, John F. Kennedy Airport is expected to be back up and operating at 9:00 PM eastern. That's a little less than an hour from now. You'll remember we've been reporting that there were ground stops where no planes were going to be taking off from a number of different airports. At that point, at 9:00 PM when the planes start flying out of JFK again, all three New York airports and, of course, they count Newark as one of the three New York airports, will be operating, La Guardia, JFK and Newark. That leaves ground stops at Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa. Amtrak is preparing to start moving trains in and out of New York. It says here some 35,000 people daily move between New York and Boston. I would have thought it was more. But that's what they tell me. And now we're going to move out to the Detroit Medical Center. And Ginny Seyferth, Ms. Seyferth, can you hear me? Hello, Ms. Seyferth. Ah, I'm hearing a voice there. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you until this very moment. Tell me, tell me what you do at the Detroit Medical Center and what's going on there this evening.
GINNY SEYFERTH, DETROIT MEDICAL CENTER
The Detroit Medical Center is ten hospitals and institutes. And we have the largest emergency room in the City of Detroit. We are fortunate to be on full backup generation power, generator power at all of our sites. We're managing our resources as carefully as we can, especially the water supply. We're also very fortunate to have got this before first shift was down, so we were able to keep our first shift as backup staff. And we have a tunnel that connects several of our hospitals. So we are utilizing (inaudible) from underground to be able to transfer lab needs and other backup needs through emergency rooms to the other hospitals where there's more capacity.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Now, once again, this is the Detroit Medical Center that we're talking about. And as Ms. Seyferth just pointed out, you have, what, nine hospitals you said that are ...
GINNY SEYFERTH
We have ten hospitals and institutes. And the city's three largest emergency rooms.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Ten hospitals. Is there any unusual activity this evening, by which I mean people suffering from heat stroke, people suffering from tension, chest pains, you know, the kinds of things that you might expect in a situation like this?
GINNY SEYFERTH
Probably the most unusual volume of patients that we are seeing is people who are on oxygen or ventilators that don't have any backup systems in their homes are coming in a large number to the emergency room as a place to go.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Yeah, what, I mean, that, that's a terrifying prospect. How much time do those people have to be able to make it to a hospital before, I mean, I assume these ventilators need power all the time, don't they?
GINNY SEYFERTH
Well, and many of them are equipped with backup generators or there are equipment companies that work with those ventilators, but in our situation we're seeing many of them as an immediate precaution come to the medical center, or one of our emergency rooms as a backup plan and so we're trying very much to triage all other non-emergency patients away from the emergency center or to other hospitals.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) And what are you able to do for people when they come in? In other words, you have enough power backup that you can, that you can get these people up and running again?
GINNY SEYFERTH
At this point, that's exactly what we're doing. We're prioritizing those patients for that access of emergency power and asking everybody else to limit power throughout our entire system.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) But beyond that, Ms. Seyferth, no, no major problems this evening? I'm talking about health problems.
GINNY SEYFERTH
Absolutely at this point, other than the normal anxiety, we're just beginning to (inaudible) these other patients come into the hospital.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) All right, well, I thank you very much indeed. You must understand, those of you who are watching me this evening, that people are feeding me names in my earpiece. And sometimes I'm not entirely sure what, what level of expertise they are bringing to this. John Pike, can you hear me at the moment? John Pike, can you hear me?
JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG
I can hear you, Ted. Can you hear me?
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) I can.
JOHN PIKE
Hi.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Now tell me what your, tell me what your area of expertise is.
JOHN PIKE
Well, I'm here on Capitol Hill. And we basically managed to avoid the blackout here. We've been real fascinated to watch the emergency managers here in Washington, though. They've apparently all come in, either in anticipation that there might be a blackout moving in this direction, or that it's an exercise to see how well they're going to be able to respond in the event of a terrorist attack in our part of the country.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) How is the, how is the infrastructure doing? I mean, I understand one of the things you focus on is when the infrastructure is under special strain. How do you think it's, how do you think it's working this time around?
JOHN PIKE
Well, I, I think thus far, at least in the areas outside the blackout, we've been in real good shape. The areas inside the blackout, I was certainly impressed with the relatively orderly way that people were walking away from midtown Manhattan. It looks like they're evacuating the, the subways in reasonably good order. Do not appear to be any big communication problems right now. But I think that that's going to be the evaluation that all the emergency managers are going to be looking at on Monday morning. That if this had been something more threatening than simply a power failure, how ready would everyone have been to respond?
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) What do you think are the most, the most vulnerable points of the infrastructure? What should we be watching for? And as we're looking at some of these live pictures that are coming out of New York, you can see that darkness beginning to fall. The vehicles all have their lights on. What, what is it that you're looking for?
JOHN PIKE
Well, I think the two things that we have to look for are, number one, the communications among the various first responders. Can the police talk to the emergency medical technicians and can they talk to the fire departments? The second one is with the lights off, are shopkeepers going to be able to protect their property or is this going to turn into a free for all? And how quickly are the police going to be able to prevent that from happening?
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) All right, John Paik, Pike, I thank you very much indeed. I apologize for mispronouncing your name. It was good of you to, to join us. My colleague Diane Sawyer has been out on the streets of New York. She's now back in our bureau. You're looking like the news vacuum cleaner that you are, what have you, what have you sucked up this evening?
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS
(Off Camera) Well, be glad you're not sitting next to me, Ted. That's all I can say. It's really hot out there. I just wanted to tell you a few street stories. I've been all over the city. And I, I walked across the 59th Street Bridge with some 5,000 to 10,000 people who have just been streaming in and out of there. And astonishing tales. You know that old story the Bridge of San Luis Rey, where everybody has an amazing story. People were coming from in La Guardia Airport, all the way out of town, and suddenly they would stop with their bags and all sorts of strangers would sweep around them, pick up their bags and help them get into the city. We saw people who had passed out, who were being carried in. Again, strangers moving in to do what they could. In the city itself, as the sun had been setting, I noticed a little something, I don't think I'm going too far here to say that it's getting slightly, slightly more tense out there in the city. Because I think a lot of people wanted to be someplace they knew by dark. Also in the street they're discovering that these traffic patterns are really weird. You have, you have complete gridlock. And then a few blocks away, from the same direction, you have no traffic at all. And I think people are discovering that because of the lack of communication and the fact that you really don't have any way of knowing what's going on three streets away, that some people have been stuck for three hours. We saw a teeny car that had 25 people in it, 25. I still don't know where the arms and legs were, trying to get out to Queens. And we saw some fighting in the street, arguing in the street, not fistfights. But it, it does seem as the sun is setting, everybody's reevaluating a little bit here.
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) Let me give you a sense, Diane. Someone just handed this to me. This is actually rather good news. At this time, 90 percent to 95 percent of all the subway lines in the four boroughs where the trains run have been evacuated. And they expect that that may be updated to all 100 percent in a few minutes. There's no estimate when the power will be up again completely. But the third rail down there has been deactivated. And I'm sure they'll make sure that there is nobody down in those tunnels before they put that third rail up again. But it must be incredibly difficult for people to get to their homes in Queens, in the Bronx, in Brooklyn. I mean, that's a long way.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) A they're planning five-hour walks, all these people streaming across the bridge. Pregnant women. And the elderly being helped, being helped, but nonetheless, they have no choice but three to five hour walks. And a lot of them didn't have any water. Somebody else was walking by just bringing water to the people he thought need it the most. That is great news about the subway. I went down in one of the subways as they were being evacuated early on. And you know, they were really proud of themselves, a lot of the EMS workers down there, because they thought a lot of the evacuations had gone more smoothly than even they could have foreseen from their training before.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Where are people getting their information? Because without the electricity, they're not watching television. I assume the radio, are the radio stations all still functioning?
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Yeah, the radio stations are functioning. And, you know, coming through the park, I walked back down, I had gone home from "Good Morning America" late this afternoon and came back in through the park. People were gathered like around campfires. And you'd look in the center, and there would be a teeny little battery-run radio. And it was really like watching everybody in tribal times gathering around, getting their information. And groups would actually swarm and pass it on to the next group, which would pass it on to the next group. And they were really proud that lots of times they were giving the new people news.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Is it, is it your sense, Diane, that we're going to be able to keep this sense of community and tranquility into the evening? I know you suggested that there's a little bit of a feeling of tension. But what's your guess?
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) I think that, I think there's a little bit. But it is an extraordinary, it's like the common, some sort of common understanding that this is the time when, once again, New Yorkers have to show what they're made of. And I know in the other cities where it's going on as well. So I'm banking on it, yes. I just think this moment when the sun starts to set and you feel that uncertainty, of am I going to spend the next three hours in the dark here? That there's just a slight bit more anxiety that you feel out there on the streets.
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) What floor do you live on?
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) I'm on the 14th. Yes, and I walked up. I walked up, in the blazing heat and then battled my way back down. Forgive me, my husband's shirt, okay?
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) Very becoming. You tell Mike that he has nice taste in shirts. And I thank you very much. And if you think of something else that you can fill us in on later, we'll come back to you.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) We've got some tape for you. I'll bring it to you after (inaudible) goes down.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Terrific. Okay. Thanks very much indeed. Now we're gonna take a short break. For a couple of messages? Is that right? We'll be right back.
commercial break
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) They are calling it the worst energy crisis, although sometimes they don't want to refer to it as a crisis, in American history. It is certainly the biggest outage, 50 million people are reportedly affected by this power outage, which has hit the states of New York and Connecticut and New Jersey and Ohio and Michigan and parts of Vermont. It's moved on up into Ottawa, Toronto, Canada, as you can see there on that map. And roughly 50 million people affected by it. And darkness is just beginning to fall here on the east coast. Let me just fill you in briefly on what the chief of staff of Cleveland's Mayor Jane Campbell says. She is telling one of our reporters that not only does Cleveland not have power, but they may have a water crisis, too. Because the water pumps are not operating due to the power failure, which I suppose leads me to my colleague, Joe Pagonakis, who is with our affiliated station WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, Joe is at the Perry, Ohio, nuclear power plant. Joe, can you hear me all right? Good. I wish I could hear you. You keep, you keep talking and we'll see if they can put your voice in my ear. Go ahead.
JOE PAGONAKIS, WEWS, OHIO
(Off Camera) Okay. I can do that. We're here at the Perry plant, about 40 miles east of the city of Cleveland. This is a key piece of the power puzzle here in this region of the country. The plant scrammed in a controlled shutdown at about 4:15 this afternoon, this evening. The employees told that they might have to come in early tomorrow, 6:00 AM to see if they can't get this plant back on-line. But of course they're taking a wait and see and, of course, security a major issue out here at this facility, which is now buttoned down. Kind of an ironic sight to see a power plant here. We're in the small community of Perry which is very aware of the cooling towers here in this area. And absolutely no power out here. As a matter of fact many of the municipalities here in northeast Ohio, are still without power. A bit of a treasure hunt, as you might guess, in trying to find gasoline. The Hopkins International Airport is limited flights in and out. But kind of victims of our own technology. All of the toilet systems at that airport have been shut down because they run on electric eyes. So they're dealing with a bit of a problem there. Mayor Jane Campbell announcing that there will be a total curfew in the city starting at 9:30 tonight. All of the police departments here in the greater Cleveland area have doubled their forces, they're looking for looting and of course, they're helping out with the major traffic problems that are inherent in a power outage of this magnitude, Ted. Now, back to you.
TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) So, there, there's literally no one but what people who are authorized to be on the streets particularly will be allowed in the streets of Cleveland tonight?
JOE PAGONAKIS
(Off Camera) That's correct, Ted. And they'll be looking for people violating that 9:30 curfew. Obviously there are security concerns. When you have a power outage of this type, many of the security systems offline due to a lack of electricity.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) I'm really fascinated, Joe, by the difference between the reaction of different states and municipalities. For example, in New Jersey, they've put the state on a state of emergency. In New York, they have not. What do you think the great concern is in Cleveland? Is the Mayor a particularly cautious woman?
JOE PAGONAKIS
(Off Camera) Oh, no question about it. I mean, obviously when you have a circumstance like this, you want to make sure that there isn't an increase in crime. They want to make sure people are safe. They're encouraging people not to travel because of all of the traffic lights being out. And there are major medical concerns. As I heard earlier in your broadcast, the big, big problem is those on oxygen, those on respirators. Many of the fire departments here locally helping out the hospitals because many of those departments have generators. And that's what you need to keep the oxygen and ventilators running. But those are the concerns, medical and of course concerns over crime and safety. No doubt about that, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Joe, have you, have you heard anything at all about an increase in crime? Have there been any particular problems during the late afternoon since this happened? Because mostly around the country, there didn't seem to be much of anything.
JOE PAGONAKIS
(Off Camera) No, that's not, that's not a particular problem here right now. I think Mayor Campbell doing the job that she does, always a very good job, is really taking a proactive approach here with the curfew. And many municipalities are following suit with increased patrols. It's just something they want to make sure everybody's safe until we figure out when this immense power outage is going to be over. I want to, I want to add that there are a number of small municipalities that have had the power come back on. So we are starting to see a turnaround in some of the smaller suburbs that are in and around Cleveland, especially east of Cleveland, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) All right. Joe Pagonakis of WEWS, our affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. Joe, thanks very much indeed. And now we're just gonna take a look at a piece of videotape that's been put together, sort of stitching together some of the voices of people who came out of the subway. Voices from the subway in New York.
RESIDENT, FEMALE
Everybody just went completely black. And everybody started panicking and pushing towards the door. There's no air in there at all to breathe. You couldn't breathe at all.
RESIDENT
We're just sitting on there. They don't tell you anything.
RESIDENT, MALE
The lights started blinking and everything just went out. And then the backup light was on for a second, then everything just went out.
RESIDENT
Had a brownout first, and then as my train tried to leave out the station, it just, boop.
RESIDENT
She's actually in labor right now. So the cops just came. (inaudible) But she's in a lot of pain. It's just a lot of the exhaustion everyone is going through right now.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Just a few of the pictures and voices from New York late this afternoon. And afternoon has turned into evening, as you can see. It is now dark over New York. We have a helicopter just, is that a helicopter below us or is this a picture from, this is a picture from, from a helicopter. And of course, you're seeing traffic backed up. Those lights below. That's about as dark as you will ever see New York City. New York itself is dark. The only lights, I assume you're seeing down there are lights of vehicles or lights that people are carrying. This is, as I've mentioned to you a couple of times now, but it bears mentioning, the biggest power outage in the history of the United States. Some 50 million people affected. We're going to take a few messages and then we'll be back with more of our live coverage on the power outage of 2003.
commercial break
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) This is Ted Koppel reporting from Washington. We know what has happened, 50 million people without power throughout much of the northeast and up into Canada and over into Ohio and Michigan. What we don't know is why. And there is a bit of a spat going on between the Canadian government, which keeps saying, Canadian officials were being reported by the Associated Press, saying that a massive power outage across the northeastern US and parts of Canada was caused by a lightning strike at a Niagara power plant on the US side. Jim Volkosh at Niagara County Emergency Management Services said there has no been lightning and no fire at any power plant or power station in Niagara County. So you pays your money and you takes your choice. The fact of the matter is we do not know why this has happened. Only that it has. And that 50 million people are now without power in what is apparently the biggest power outage in the history of the United States. The one thing on which there seems to be fairly common agreement, although even here there's some question as to whether a hacker may or not have had something to do with it is the general assessment that terrorism had nothing to do with this event. We're going to be hearing from the president of the United States very soon, but we are now just going to take a short break so that our stations can identify themselves. This is Ted Koppel in Washington. I'll be back in a moment.
commercial break
ANNOUNCER
ABC News continuing coverage of the Northeast power blackout of 2003 continues. Once again, Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Most of New York in darkness. Much of the Northeast in darkness, heading up into Canada and out to Michigan and Ohio and even up into parts of Vermont. But it does look as though there may be the beginnings of some lights coming on in parts of Manhattan. We can only hope and we will report to you. What you can see there, is the only lights you're seeing of course are from vehicles that are painstakingly moving through downtown Manhattan. No lights on in any of the buildings. That's Times Square. The lights you see there are probably the lights that are being used for television cameras. But, and that, I think, if that's Times Square, that, that may, that may well be the ABC studios right there. So that's why, that's why you're seeing lights up there. But I want to switch now to someone who has very patiently been standing by. Paul Fleuranges is with the New York Transit Authority. Mr. Fleuranges, can you hear me?
PAUL FLEURANGES,
NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT AUTHORITY
Yes, I can, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Tell me what you know. What's happening with the subway? I was reporting before that you, you think you got most of the folks out of the subway system. Is that right?
PAUL FLEURANGES
That's right, Ted. We've got everybody out.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Everybody?
PAUL FLEURANGES
We're 100 percent evacuated in the system now. Right now what we're doing is matching our schedule with the trains that we had out there. Making sure that it's a one to one, and we can check those trains, make sure people are gone and then mark those off our list. But we're 100 percent evacuated as far as the system goes.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) That's awfully good news. And what can you tell us about the condition of, I mean, some of the people, I know nobody was down there for too many hours, but some of the people were down there for more than an hour. Anybody have any problems with that?
PAUL FLEURANGES
As far as I know, we didn't have any medical related problems with our customers who were trapped as a result of this blackout. There might have been a few, but I haven't heard any serious ones. I don't have any numbers for you.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Give us a sense now of once the power is up again, how do you get the subway system functioning? Because as we've been telling people all evening long, especially those who are not familiar with New York, you've got, do have any idea how many people come into the, come into Manhattan by subway everyday and therefore also have to get back home by subway?
PAUL FLEURANGES
Don't have a number in front of me. We do have numbers like that. I don't have it in front of me. We're estimating at the height of the incident, we had about 300 to 400 trains out there, approximately 350,000 people on those trains. I couldn't tell you how many of those people we had to evacuate through a tunnel. I can't tell how many of those people we had to evacuate through an emergency exit. What we told our crews as soon as we realized the extent of the problem, was that if they could coast to a station, to do so, and discharge their passengers there and get them out that way. Those trains that were in tunnels between stations and they couldn't do that, we told them to evacuate. We had our manager supervisors, police and fire out there with us, helping evacuate those trains. So that was the first step. And when we started evacuating, we concentrated initially on the underwater tubes as well as the bridges to get those people out. But it was a system-wide evacuation.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Now, once you get power restored, how long will it take you before you can get the subway system functioning properly again?
PAUL FLEURANGES
Well, what we did when we evacuated we turned off the power to the system. You know, we turned off our switch, so that way, if power did come back in the middle of it, no one would be exposed to a third rail, a live third rail while they're evacuating. The estimate here is it will take us about six to eight hours to get the system back up and running. Let me explain to you why. We have hundreds of signals, hundreds of switches, if not thousands that we would have to check individually to make sure that they did not sustain any damage as a result of losing power. So that will take a long time. And then we have to decide, well, what do we do with our assets that are there, once we get power back? How do we move them, how do we position them to get them back into some semblance of our schedule? Our schedule has been thrown completely out of whack. So we have to do that. But the initial man hours will be spent going through, making sure that all of our signals are working properly. All of our switches, all of our relays, to make sure we get the integrity of the system back, make sure it's intact. And then we can think about moving trains and getting back to service. But it will take between six to eight hours.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) I mean, eight hours from now is not quite the beginning of tomorrow morning's rush hour, but it is pretty darn close. When does your rush hour usually start, about 5:30?
PAUL FLEURANGES
About 6:00, 6:00, about 6:00 or 6:30, yeah.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) What do you, what do you think the chances are that you're going to, that you're going to be up to full speed, I mean, if, if miraculously the power were restored in the next half hour or so, would you be up to speed again by tomorrow morning?
PAUL FLEURANGES
If power was restored in the next hour or so, I think it would be a certainty that we would be back for rush hour tomorrow. But, you know, we'll work as fast as we can once power is restored to get it back up and running, but it will take a while. You know, we'll be able to carry our buses if we get power back and, you know, street levels working, and signals on the street level working, we'll be able to carry people on our buses. But we can in no way carry the same amount of people on buses as we do on the subway system.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Understood. So when, when I talk about the New York Transit System, we are talking about what? We're talking about the subway system, the buses?
PAUL FLEURANGES
We're talking about our 24, we're talking about our 24 major subway lines which make up the subway system, and, you know, we have 200 or 300 bus routes. So the buses, while no one was stranded on a bus per se, but buses in certain parts of the city, where there were no police officers initially directing traffic, a lot of those buses just basically pulled over and stopped. Because it wasn't safe to operate on roads without traffic lights. So those buses are still affected. You know, I hear buses outside of our building running as we speak. We're running, we're not at full service. But it will take a while for us to get up to speed even on the bus side. We have to get assets back, change out crews and get all that going. So it's a major undertaking for us to get back up to where we were prior to 4:12 PM this afternoon.
graphics: power outage
started at 4:15 EDT
affected us cities spreading fro nyc to cleveland & detroit and into canada
caused by a disturbance in either southern canada or northern ny
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) I'm talking to Paul Fleuranges, who's with the New York Transit System, just one more question, Mr. Fleuranges. I, I'm assuming, maybe incorrectly, that you would probably have to go through and send people through everyone of those tunnels just to make sure there's nobody, nobody left down there.
PAUL FLEURANGES
That's what we're doing right now, as we check train to train. We have people walking the system making sure that we've checked those trains. Our crews are with the trains. Once they evacuate their passengers, they go back and secure the train. So our crews are with the train. So it's just a matter of checking to make sure that there's nobody down there that we missed. We don't believe we've missed anybody. But we'll do that anyway, before we start ramping up service and definitely before we turn on the third rail, to make sure that there's nobody down there who could get electrocuted if they mistakenly stepped on the third rail.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Well, that's awfully good news. And it's, you know, it's been an evening where there hasn't been a whole lot of really good news. But the New York City subway system has apparently been 100 percent evacuated. They got everybody out of there. As you heard Mr. Fleuranges say, they're going to be checking to make sure that nobody is left behind. The third rail has been shut down. And depending on when that electrical system goes back on again, the subway system will go on some six to eight hours later. Hoping that that will be in time for tomorrow morning's rush hour. Paul Fleuranges, thanks very much, indeed. I appreciate you joining us this evening.
PAUL FLEURANGES
Thank you, Ted.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) And we're going to take a short break. We'll be back after these words.
ANNOUNCER
ABC News coverage of the 2003 Northeast power blackout will continue in a moment.
commercial break
ANNOUNCER
ABC News coverage of the 2003 Northeast power blackout continues. Once again from Washington, Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) There was a very popular song during World War II "When the Lights Come on Again." And that appears to be what is happening right now. As we're looking at New York City, that's an awfully good sign. Some of the lights are coming back on again, which suggests that the power grid, however slowly, is coming back once again. Just to give you a sense at how monumental this power failure was this evening, back in 1965, when the previously largest power failure occurred, some 30 million people were affected. This afternoon and this evening, some 50 million people throughout the Northeast have been affected. But we've been told by some of the experts we've been talking to all evening long that when the power grid does come back on again, it's not like pulling a, or flipping a switch where the whole grid comes on at the same time. You have to do it in an orderly and, and, an orderly progression. So that the mere fact that some of the lights in one or two of the office buildings have come on seems to suggest that the process is now under way. As soon as we know any more about that, we will tell you what is happening. We've got a couple of our ABC News producers and correspondents all over New York City, and I want to go first of all to Fiona Conway who is down at the FDR, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Highway, which scuds along the eastern side of Manhattan between the eastern edge of Manhattan and the, and the East River. Fiona, can you hear me?
FIONA CONWAY, ABC NEWS PRODUCER
Yes, I can.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Where are you, what do you see, what do you know?
FIONA CONWAY
(Voice Over) Well, I was on Third Avenue when the power outage occurred. And was stuck there until I finally abandoned my car and just decided to start walking. I'm now over on Park Avenue where the traffic is moving. But on Third Avenue near the bridge where everybody's trying to get to Queens, it is so total gridlock.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Are you seeing any indication of lights going on again, Fiona? Because as I was saying to you, I think down in the, in the Times Square area, a few of the lights seem to be coming on again. But that appears to be the extent of it at the moment. We're looking at that picture on our screens right now. What, what are you seeing as you look around?
FIONA CONWAY
(Voice Over) There are no lights on down here. There's the odd light in a building which must be emergency but the only light is from cars. And people are still walking along the streets, but it's gotten a lot quieter since it's gotten dark.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Has the mood changed at all? I mean, much has been made of the sort of quiet resignation, neighborliness that New Yorkers have been showing to one another. Is that still in evidence?
FIONA CONWAY
(Voice Over) Yes, it is. But people seem a little bit more solemn and somber about the fact that they still are on a long march home. A lot of people have pulled up chairs outside restaurants. And they're having dinner and they're having, drinking beer and sitting on the sidewalks, but it certainly seems to have gotten a little bit more somber as it's become dark.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) All right, Fiona. Well, we're going to take another short break. And then we'll come back with our continuing coverage of this blackout throughout much of the Northeast. This is Ted Koppel reporting from Washington. Back in a moment.
ANNOUNCER
This ABC News special, the 2003 Northeast power blackout, will continue.
commercial break
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Good evening. And as we were telling you just before the break, it does look as though a few lights are going back on again in Manhattan, but very, very few. Let me just tell you a few things that are happening. There are a handful of trains that are moving from New Jersey into Penn Station. However, nothing is moving out of Penn Station. Nothing is moving north. Amtrak is asking that nobody new get into the system because the platforms for the trains that are running are already packed. You should know that Broadway, the show did not go on tonight. It's now about 8:52. On a normal evening, there would be lots of shows on Broadway tonight. But 22 shows, 19 musicals and three plays, went dark this evening. And that, of course, is the least of it when you think about it. There have been major problems, we'll probably be hearing about some of those as the evening progresses.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) Of people who will have gotten stuck on the high floors or not be able to make it up to the high floors of some of those towering buildings in Manhattan. This after all, is a problem that has swept across much of the East Coast. All the way out to Michigan and Ohio, all the way north up to, all the way north up into Canada. Well, there is the, there is the Statue of Liberty. And I don't know whether they're operating on some kind of a backup system, whether they have a generator or whether the electricity, at least, is on there. But that's a, that's a live picture. And there's Jersey behind the Statue of Liberty. And as you can see, there are quite a lot of lights that are now on in New Jersey. So all the indicators are very positive ones. Nothing major yet in the lower part of Manhattan. Most of Manhattan is still dark, although as we reported just a few moments ago, there some areas of Manhattan where in a couple of buildings, the lights have come back on again. And this is to be expected. The fact of the matter is, matter is that they will not be able to put the power grid all on in one fell swoop. It's going to have to be done very gradually or they will have another breakdown. So we will keep reporting this story as it progresses and indeed there is now a little bit of progress. And I want to switch to another one of our ABC producers. Eddie Pinder who is in Manhattan. Where are you, Eddie?
EDDIE PINDER, ABC NEWS PRODUCER
(Voice Over) Ted, I'm at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. I spent most of my afternoon in lower Manhattan. I was actually able to drive down from ABC News Bureau, which you know is at 66th Street. While I was here, I saw a clamoring of Brooklynites figuring how do we get home? And the answer is walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, so decided to trek across the bridge to see what the experience would be like on the other side. What they would do, how do you get home? And what you see, once on the other side of the bridge, you see reunions where people have called loved ones and said, meet me at the foot of the bridge. You also see failings of police officers trying to direct what appears, as you've said all day, an orderly chaos. Most of the people here are calm. They had sort of, (inaudible) attitudes. And they're just trying to make, get home.
graphics: last major blackouts
august 13, 1977
affected all five nyc boroughs and northern westchester county
LIGHTNING downed major transmission power lines supplying metropolitan area
us power outages
november 9, 1965
30 million affected
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) As you're looking around, Eddie, I've just been reporting, and the really good news is that there appear to be a lot of lights going back on again across the, the Hudson River in New Jersey, but even a few lights going on in Manhattan. Any visible from where you are?
EDDIE PINDER
(Voice Over) Well, Ted, actually, all the buildings around me are dark, with the exception of one building that appears to be an office building. I have no idea if they're on a private generator or some other power source. Generally, it is dark, very, very dark around here. And as I was walking across the bridge, I talked to quite a few pedestrians who were concerned about this hour, what happens when it's dark. A few of them reminisced about the blackouts of 1965.
TED KOPPEL
(Voice Over) All right, we seem to have lost Eddie Pinder, who is reporting to us from the Brooklyn Bridge. But I do want to just bring you up to speed on a few of the things that are happening in and around New York and the East Coast. One of the most important things is that they've been able to successfully evacuate the New York subway system. But at one point or another, they probably had a couple of hundred thousand people at least, or may have had as many as a couple hundred thousand people, on that subway system. They now have everybody successfully evacuated and Transit Authority police and workers are now quite literally walking their way through the tunnels of the subway system to make sure that nobody has been trapped down there. If indeed electricity comes back up again in the next hour or so, they should be able to run their, their rush hour effectively tomorrow morning, but we'll have to wait and see what's happening there. And as far as the airports are concerned, the airports, which have been allowing planes that were scheduled to land, but have been keeping planes from taking off, are now, almost all of them, I believe JFK is due to start letting planes take off again in just another minute or so. And the other airports have already done so. So things are very slowly beginning to get back to normal. We're going to take a short break now. I'll be back with more in a moment.
© Copyright 2003, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
