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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hundreds of Thousands of People in and Around Nation's Capital in the Dark Right
Aired September 19, 2003 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Isabel is a tropical storm this morning, but it's still raising Cain. Hundreds of thousands of people in and around the nation's capital in the dark right now.
Jennifer Coggiola joins us live from Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. That's right across the Potomac from the capital -- good morning to you, again, Jennifer.
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
And lucky for me we do have lights around here.
COSTELLO: Yes, I do notice the electricity is on in Old Town. How did that happen?
COGGIOLA: I know. I don't know. Call it luck. I left the District, downtown D.C. earlier this morning. They had power, as well. And coming into Virginia, as far as I could see, all the buildings did have lights on. But that certainly isn't the case for the rest of Virginia, as we know. They're saying about 1.5 million residents' homes in Virginia are without any electricity this morning.
The governor did say it'll take multi-day tasks to sort of get people up and running again. So hopefully by the beginning of next week's work week, people will be as lucky as we are here in Old Town with lights on.
COSTELLO: Yes, you know, I know the water treatment plant lost electricity earlier. We hope that's back on because that could cause problems if it's out for too long, as far as getting clean water to homes. You know, Old Town, Alexandria floods even during a hard rain. I can only imagine how conditions are there this morning.
COGGIOLA: Absolutely. They're saying this is the worst we've seen since 1996. One resident that I talked to said it's worse than that, but if you -- the water is actually six feet deep at this point. And you have to consider that high tide was at 2:30 a.m. this morning and the water is still rising. And they also say that the water coming off of the mountains, if this storm continues -- it's raining right now -- could even increase the levels of the Potomac even greater. So flooding is definitely a concern in this old, beautiful town with all these cobblestone sort of sidewalks.
So residents are keeping an eye on that, hoping the sand bags are going to help, as well.
COSTELLO: It is a lovely historic town, a beautiful place.
Let's talk about D.C. The federal government is shut down again today, isn't it?
COGGIOLA: Yep. All the government and federal buildings are closed. We do have one announcement that could be good. National Airport is expected to open some time later today and as far as the Metros, just getting around D.C. itself, they usually open at 5:00 a.m. in D.C., but instead they're having a conference call this morning to sort of gauge the progress, see if they're ready. And if all looks good, they're going to start up again at 5:00 a.m.
COSTELLO: Oh, hopefully they will.
And talking about the airports for just a second, you know, thousands of flights were canceled yesterday. So even if the airports do open up this morning, I guess everyone can expect delays.
COGGIOLA: Yes, patience is a virtue, I think, in this situation. Everybody just has to understand it not only affected the East Coast, but when you've got delays here, it's going to trickle throughout the entire United States.
But we're slowly seeing airports coming out with announcements and hopefully they will be back and running by hopefully later today, maybe even this evening.
COSTELLO: All right, Jennifer Coggiola reporting live from Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Capital in the Dark Right>
Aired September 19, 2003 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Isabel is a tropical storm this morning, but it's still raising Cain. Hundreds of thousands of people in and around the nation's capital in the dark right now.
Jennifer Coggiola joins us live from Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. That's right across the Potomac from the capital -- good morning to you, again, Jennifer.
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
And lucky for me we do have lights around here.
COSTELLO: Yes, I do notice the electricity is on in Old Town. How did that happen?
COGGIOLA: I know. I don't know. Call it luck. I left the District, downtown D.C. earlier this morning. They had power, as well. And coming into Virginia, as far as I could see, all the buildings did have lights on. But that certainly isn't the case for the rest of Virginia, as we know. They're saying about 1.5 million residents' homes in Virginia are without any electricity this morning.
The governor did say it'll take multi-day tasks to sort of get people up and running again. So hopefully by the beginning of next week's work week, people will be as lucky as we are here in Old Town with lights on.
COSTELLO: Yes, you know, I know the water treatment plant lost electricity earlier. We hope that's back on because that could cause problems if it's out for too long, as far as getting clean water to homes. You know, Old Town, Alexandria floods even during a hard rain. I can only imagine how conditions are there this morning.
COGGIOLA: Absolutely. They're saying this is the worst we've seen since 1996. One resident that I talked to said it's worse than that, but if you -- the water is actually six feet deep at this point. And you have to consider that high tide was at 2:30 a.m. this morning and the water is still rising. And they also say that the water coming off of the mountains, if this storm continues -- it's raining right now -- could even increase the levels of the Potomac even greater. So flooding is definitely a concern in this old, beautiful town with all these cobblestone sort of sidewalks.
So residents are keeping an eye on that, hoping the sand bags are going to help, as well.
COSTELLO: It is a lovely historic town, a beautiful place.
Let's talk about D.C. The federal government is shut down again today, isn't it?
COGGIOLA: Yep. All the government and federal buildings are closed. We do have one announcement that could be good. National Airport is expected to open some time later today and as far as the Metros, just getting around D.C. itself, they usually open at 5:00 a.m. in D.C., but instead they're having a conference call this morning to sort of gauge the progress, see if they're ready. And if all looks good, they're going to start up again at 5:00 a.m.
COSTELLO: Oh, hopefully they will.
And talking about the airports for just a second, you know, thousands of flights were canceled yesterday. So even if the airports do open up this morning, I guess everyone can expect delays.
COGGIOLA: Yes, patience is a virtue, I think, in this situation. Everybody just has to understand it not only affected the East Coast, but when you've got delays here, it's going to trickle throughout the entire United States.
But we're slowly seeing airports coming out with announcements and hopefully they will be back and running by hopefully later today, maybe even this evening.
COSTELLO: All right, Jennifer Coggiola reporting live from Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Capital in the Dark Right>
