From the archives: Northeast blackout of 2003

and this is a special edition part of CBS News continuing coverage of the blackout of 2003. much of the Northeastern United States is without power tonight millions and millions of people in big cities and suburbs from New York to Detroit and in Canada were caught by surprise in the middle or late afternoon when the electrical grid suddenly crashed stopping everything that depends on electricity to run here in New York City the only thing to do was walk workers those not trapped in buildings high-rise or otherwise are subways flooded into the streets trying to make their way home post 911 the first thing everybody asked was is Terrorism behind us the answer officials say absolutely positively no but they are not sure yet exactly what knocked the power out CBS News has a team of correspondents deployed to bring you full coverage of this still developing story We Begin here in New York with Jim actually there's limited Communications here in the tri-state area if New York City is not completely paralyzed tonight the going couldn't be much slower with no power at rush hour and the police stretched thin enough at points that pedestrians are directing traffic it's massive gridlock telephone's not working telephone's not working it's like you're in the wilderness you know and this is New York City at this point it's suspected a power plant problem in Buffalo shut down power in the New York City metropolitan area and up the Eastern Seaboard into Canada as far west as Detroit you can see the gridlock on all the downtown streets here this is what Cleveland looked like where power was out as far as Akron hospitals on backup generators and the train to the suburbs were down underground in New York City in the Subways alarm sounded and people were pulled to safety percent and they told us it was a DC felony was a city-wide failure it was a style of panic you know like we couldn't breathe with the seven million people who use the Subways in New York needing to find another way home the streets and sidewalks quickly jam with people walking across Bridges and out of Manhattan in a state of confusion just kinda like all these other people just looking around don't know what's going on don't know what happened the last time New Yorkers saw pictures like these was the first thought on many Minds it's creepy I'm getting a flashback from September 11th I don't like this I mean the first thing to Emmy was 9 11 I thought something was wrong I got a little nervous but fairly quickly the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it was not terrorism and the mayor of New York agreed you have a careful plan which we've rehearsed and practiced to deal with exactly this emergency and as of this moment virtually everything that we had expected to be able to do we have done of course the number one question now is when is the power going to come back on that depends on what part of the Northeast you're talking about there are reports in Ohio that it's already on the mayor of New York is talking about a few hours the man who runs the utility in Detroit says maybe longer late this evening possibly into early morning but Dan at this point everyone's talking about hours not days Dan Jim Axelrod reporting live from the streets of New York now the region stricken by this power outage is enormous it runs from New York extending North at least 300 miles to the Canadian capital of Ottawa and West nearly 500 miles to Toledo Ohio including Detroit Cleveland and other cities large parts of New Jersey and Connecticut are also affected but and this is important while a very widespread area is affected most of the country is not nor is it expected to be affected the Outlook is that this will be confined to the Northeast part of the United States sites other sections of the country will not be affected at least not directly cbs's Anthony Mason is here on the setup we do now to tell what's happening outside of New York Anthony Dan the reports are scattered but they are coming in from all over the Northeast in Detroit the first the power company Detroit Edison knew of the power outage was when their own building went dark the city was reporting five-hour traffic delays and bridges from Detroit to Canada are reportedly gridlocked in Erie Pennsylvania rolling blackouts have caused a chaotic Rush Hour even Governor Ed Rendell visiting the city was stranded in traffic in Cleveland University Hospital was operating in disaster mode no staff could leave a nurse in the labor room said they were without air conditioning and quote our laboring moms are suffering in Hartford Connecticut power was has been flashing in and out 40 trains in the state are stranded between stations Akron Ohio is without power and four nuclear plants in Ohio and New York have been shut down every prison in New York state reported a loss of power and switched to backup generators air travel in the Northeast has ground to a halt causing disruptions across the country airports in New York Cleveland Detroit Ottawa and Toronto have grounded flights causing a snowball effect of delays the FAA says air traffic control centers are still in business some on backup diesel generators the problem is with electricity out at some airports x-ray machines and scanners aren't working and it's impossible for screeners to check passengers finally the New York Stock Exchange managed to shut down before the blackout but officials could not say whether the markets will open normally tomorrow Dan Anthony Mason thanks let's talk about telephones cell phones systems got overloaded they weren't knocked out they got overloaded but the landlines seemed to work pretty well they have been working pretty well Dan thanks Anthony the federal government including the Department of Homeland Security was taken by surprise by this the government moved immediately into action among other things to try to determine what was behind the blackout was it terrorism the answer appears to be now clearly no but for that part of the story we go to Washington and CBS News correspondent Cheryl Atkinson Cheryl well here in D.C Dan you can imagine officials were watching carefully waiting wondering two things of course first of all what caused the outage in other places and secondly was something like that going to also happen here it didn't and within about an hour and a half of the blackout a senior White House Administration official had issued a statement saying that the outage was a result of a power grid failure and not terrorism the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security quickly concurred and so there was no change in the National Security alert level it remains as it was before which is yellow or elevated there was a sense of calm not urgency from the start from the White House Personnel traveling with President Bush he's on a trip out in California and power went out after the markets closed so the treasury Department here in Washington said that the shutdown of the market participants in the exchanges was very orderly and no data was lost the New York Stock Exchange range says it will open tomorrow morning we don't have word yet on the other markets but in DC I guess you could say a big sigh of relief not only to have not been affected by the outages here but also to know that the terrorism was not at any rooted cause of this Dan Cheryl Atkinson reporting live from our Washington Bureau emphasizing the power is on in Washington D.C now with the power out in a wide section of the upper Northeast United States centered if you will basically around New York City and around the Great Lakes the only way for most people to get around in the area turns out to be on foot CBS News correspondent Mika Brzezinski is on the sidewalks of New York Mika well Dan at first it's safe to say there was a wave of fear that swept over the crowds that poured out into the street when this first happened it went from information center of the world to no phone service no computers no cell phones and very little options in terms of getting around in fact we spoke to some people who were stuck in the subway When the Lights Went Out the next one you know we had to get out the train walk through the tunnel and then no calves want to stop us they don't want to take us Uptown so I guess we just stuck here I think it's very scary for the city it's very congested no no lights are going on and uh the traffic is traffic is going it's very dangerous we really don't know what's going on it could be worse into in fact that entire city is really jammed at this point subway service is out Bridges and tunnels are jammed some bridges are being used only as a pedestrian walkway hours into the situation Dan the mood has moved from anxiety Mass anxiety to massive inconvenience the streets are filled with thousands of people the only way to get around is through the express bus service and of course there's not enough of them to accommodate all the people who need to get where they need to go now at this point the concern is what happens tonight if this situation prolongs the concern of course will be looting widespread looting and crowd control but so far so good right now people are really listening to what authorities have to say they're just trying to get home or to get to a place where they can hang out for a few hours till this all calms down one guy a Dan just the all-purpose car to me tell my wife I'll be home just a little bit late tonight so people are trying to take it uh with a good mood here at this point trying to get through this very difficult commute and Mika Brzezinski reporting live from near Columbus Circle here in New York City now we haven't heard from President Bush since this situation started and the reason is he's on a trip to California he spoke to some Marines naval officers Navy personnel and Coast Guard people this afternoon and was scheduled to attend a big fundraiser in California tonight so that's the reason he hasn't been in Washington but one of our White House Correspondents Bill plant is traveling with the president in California and is now up with the report bill well Dan the president was eating lunch with some of the troops when the blackout hit and he didn't hear about it until a little bit after that the White House of course it initially very concerned to know whether this was a terrorist act and when they established fairly quickly that it did not appear to be the president was informed and they decided that Chief of Staff Andrew Card who was back at Washington would be the point man a point of contact between the traveling White House out here on the West Coast and the people involved in New York and as you know the white house chief of staff did talk to Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki in New York the president has had nothing to say on this and probably won't since it appears to be an accident he is going ahead with his schedule which as you mentioned includes a big fundraiser tonight in San Diego two thousand dollars a plate where he's expected to raise another million Dan uh bill first of all you said that Andrew carg who's a White House official but not an elected official will be in charge the point man if you will the point man for this uh where is Vice President Cheney and why wouldn't he be in charge since the president is not in Washington well Dan when last heard from vice president Cheney was on vacation in Wyoming I believe he's still there but Andy card is at the White House and presumably closer to the center of the operations with the homeland security people and can keep the traveling White House informed and he was the one who did talk to the officials in New York any serious thought given to the president canceling his appearance at that big fundraising campaign fundraising dinner tonight given the fact that so many millions of people are going through this in the Northeast have heard we're attuned to the possibility of that but there's absolutely no indication so far that he intends to cancel he does intend as far as we know to go ahead with that fundraiser Bill plant with the traveling White House and President Bush in California thanks Bill the blacked out areas include Connecticut and we take you now to Hartford Connecticut and reporter paisy Chang of CBS affiliate WFSB okay Dan I'm actually here in New Haven at Union Station and obviously the biggest concern for the people here are the hundreds of commuters that head into New York every day via the Metro North Railroad now if you take a look over here to my right you can see some people are waiting by their cars that is the waiting game that dozens of people have been playing here today as they came to Union Station waiting to pick up their loved ones now obviously there is a little bright side to this we were just told by a D.O.T representative that diesel-powered fuel trains are going to be going over to those Metro North trains and dragging them and rescuing them back here to Union Station the problem you see Dan is here at Union Station there is electricity however the overhead power line for the Metro North Railroad system from New York all the way to New Haven is completely dead and that's why all those people are stranded in between for people who are looking to leave New Haven to head to other points further west or east they're told they're going to have to hop on a bus and that's what hundreds of people have been doing here that's the latest from new even paisy chain CBS News AJ if you're still there please uh is power on anywhere in that vicinity at the moment I'm a little unclear what the situation is at the moment well here at Union Station power has been on for the past couple of hours it's just various parts of Connecticut about more than 180 000 people actually are without power right now throughout the state of Connecticut that affects places like Litchfield County Fairfield County Hartford and New London County they're monitoring the situation right now we are also told that here that the New Haven power plant they are on standby they still they haven't had any problems with power outages there but just in case since everyone else seems to be affected thank you very much Daisy Chang in the Connecticut telling the situation there it's a spotty situation in Connecticut but some of the power is off there usually night and day Times Square here in New York City radiates energy as the heartbeat of the city this evening though the pulse is a little slower as we hear now from Jim Acosta as if someone turned a switch the Lights Went Out on Broadway suddenly the glittering Billboards along the great white way were dark at the crossroads of the world the traffic lights were off people streamed out of skyscrapers onto the streets this man walked down 45 flights I hit a button on my computer and everything went out that's what it seemed like but the entire building is out people waiting on subway platforms came up for air can you tell me what you saw it kind of it was like a flush and the light went off and the The Trenches stopped everyone screamed and then I was quiet and then people ran through the stairs some didn't know what had happened they were asking me for information have you heard anything confirmed with it I haven't heard anything about that with Subways out of commission thousands were looking for a way home they attempted to call on cell phones but there was sporadic service business owners scrambled to save what they could at this store they had to go back to the old-fashioned way of keeping food cool on ice Jim Acosta CBS News New York Jim acasso reporting from here in New York City we're going to go back to Washington D.C now Cheryl Atkinson and one reason we're going to go back Cheryl first of all Cheryl if there's any new information report please pass it along but we heard Bill plant report that President Bush there in Southern California was going to go ahead with his campaign re-election campaign fundraiser tonight but the I asked him about the vice president Cheney so far as Bill said he knew vice president Cheney is still on vacation in Wyoming so Andy card Andrew Card chief of the White House staff will be in charge any concern in Washington at least for the about the appearance of this that both the president and the vice president or if you will offline and so the chief of White House staff is in charge no one has said anything about that in particular and Andrew card was not the person that spoke to us directly and issuing statements about whether or not this was terrorism and ultimately saying it was not um I think the White House it appears to us is trying hard to give the sense of calm rather than a sense of urgency or panic and it seems as though their standard operating procedure would be to continue with business as usual and everything is originally planned rather than giving any sort of appearance of of disruption Panic or urgency Cheryl Atkinson in Washington thinks most people in the blackout areas have faced aggravating but relatively minor inconveniences but for health officials it can be life or death Aaron Moriarty went to see how one New York City Hospital faced the emergency era well Dan if any good came out of 9 11 it does seem that New Yorkers seem calm and prepared for emergencies although there was that moment of panic for people like synovy Abramson whose mother was in the middle of kidney surgery at Roosevelt Hospital when the power went out but she's very sick and I'm not even sure she's going to make it through this I watched her be rolled in personally at 3 30. at 3 30 and the power went out 45 minutes late and he said it would take approximately 40 minutes to an hour and a half well you never know I mean who knows I mean you're not gonna hold anybody to that but I'm assuming that she was right in the middle of surgery but moments later her mother's surgeon came out she's okay okay it actually went out right after no she wasn't at surgery right after yeah the power went out right after we had finished okay thank goodness did you just come out from work I just did what's the situation in there uh everything is calm uh this seems to be a plan of action everybody um the elevators are down everybody sleep in the stairs but there's a lot of uh directions to where to go what I saw today were people acting intelligently and courageously and kindness and taking care of each other directing traffic looking out for one another it was fantastic Roosevelt like the other hospitals in this city are on backup power and they said that they'll be able to handle emergencies as long as they need to hey Moriarty thanks Governor what's happening in the hospitals you are watching combined coverage from CBS News special events and the CBS Evening News because of the massive power outages of blackout if you will in a widespread section of the United States the northeastern section New York City Detroit Cleveland Albany Hartford affected some on well up into Canada Toronto Ontario Ontario Province said to be still without its basic sources of power so that's the reason we're on the air with this kind of coverage a kind of Controlled Chaos just ended on New York City as the blackout spread overwhelming police and other agents of Law and Order at least in the first seconds and minutes of this but Richard Schlesinger found that many private citizens jumped into the breach Kathy Kathy Emerson is used to telling cranky rushed people what to do in tough situations you're a police officer no I'm a team how did you get into this I came out there was nobody directing traffic do you know have you ever directed traffic before no I haven't I teach High School yeah what's easier what's easier that or this they seem to listen to you A lot of times they don't know mostly they do they're amazingly cooperative and most people are saying thank you okay 79th in Amsterdam for those who've never been to New York is one of the busiest intersections in the city hello it's over there so that's what's happening she has no legal power but she still has her own kind of authority okay go hurry up hurry up hurry up go [Applause] okay stand right in the middle here okay guys [Music] she's 52 years old and just had back surgery yesterday but she's out there keeping her part of New York moving I hate to tell you but you're really in the way now you have to go you tell oh we have to go yeah you know what I'm not arguing with you thank you have a good day Richard Schlesinger CBS News 79th and Amsterdam

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Keywords: 2003 blackout, power outage, north america blackout 2003, new york city, on this day in history, 2003 blackout nyc, northeast blackout, 2003, cbs news, cbs evening news, cbs news archives, dan rather, power grid failure, power grid, north america, canada

Id: e2mIHkJywMg

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2023