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CNN Newsroom
Massive Florida Power Outage
Aired February 26, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Getting what can only be categorized as a massive power outage in Florida. A massive power outage in Florida.
It struck south Florida this afternoon, with power reported out from Miami to Palm Beach County, and in some places beyond. You're looking at live pictures now from our affiliate WSVN and also WPLG, both in Miami, Florida.
We've been looking at traffic here, some of it being stuck because of the red lights being out. We've also spoken with people on the phone who told us what was happening in the communities there in Florida.
But to update us on this developing situation, we want to go to our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, who can tell us about these power plants.
Jeanne, how many are affected? When we're dealing with power plants here, we want to take every precaution and we want to be on top of it.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: ... Reliability Council. There are eight plants affected here in Florida, a combination of fossil and nuclear power plants, according to Stan Johnson of the NERC.
As you know, in the past, when one plant has gone down, there's been a chain reaction. For instance, in Ohio we had a branch hit a line a couple years ago. The next thing you know, a big part of the East Coast was blacked out. They've done a lot of work on the grid since then to try to localize the things. The feeling is from NERC at this point in time that they have contained it with these eight plants in Florida.
As you've been saying, a large area affected. The NERC knew of the city of Miami and Dade County. It may have traveled further. They may not have had the very latest information.
The source of best information here is going to be Florida Power and Light. That's the utility that is affected here.
No sense at NERC at this point as to where this might have originated or what might have caused this. I can tell you I have talked to the Department of Homeland Security. The spokesman there, Russ Kanocki (ph), said there is no known -- excuse me, let me say that again -- no known nexus to terrorism at this point in time. So it appears to be something totally unrelated. Exactly what it is, we don't know yet.
LEMON: Real quick, your mike wasn't on when you started. We have eight or nine plants? I just want to get that.
MESERVE: I was told by the NERC that it is eight plants, eight plants in the Florida area. A mix of fossil fuel plants and nuclear plants.
LEMON: And we're thinking that this has something to do with a technical glitch. We just want our audience to know that. We don't know if it has anything to do with, God forbid, any sort of terrorism.
MESERVE: Well, the Department of Homeland Security is saying no known nexus to terrorism.
LEMON: Got it.
MESERVE: Which means they really don't think that's what it is -- Don.
LEMON: Good. We want to make that absolutely clear.
MESERVE: Yes.
LEMON: OK. Jeanne Meserve, we'll get back. So keep trying.
Are we going to go -- we're going now to Kathy Molgari (ph). She is with Miami News Net. She joins us now.
We're hearing that, Kathy, possibly four million people now without power?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what they're saying. We have no power lights, downtown Miami is shut down. Everything's shut down. All the news choppers from the local stations are up overhead, I guess trying to cover the mayhem.
LEMON: And everything's -- tell me where you are now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are located in Coconut Grove.
LEMON: You're in Coconut Grove. Are you're inside of your news building right now, no power, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
LEMON: Phones are working?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no power.
LEMON: And we're getting -- we're being told this happened -- all of it started at about nine minutes after 1:00. Did it happen that quickly for you, or did it start rolling and then it got to you later?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was around -- it was sometime after 1:00. I'm not sure exactly the minute, but it was sometime after 1:00. And, you know, it's the usual thing -- everybody kind of steps out of their office building and looks around and wants to know if everybody is suffering the same loss. And you know, and then you go to your car and turn on the radio to see what's going on.
LEMON: And just real quickly, what are your reporters -- you work for Miami News Net. What are the reporters reporting back to you, or people out in the field who are calling you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're getting calls -- we basically are a service provider for news organizations. So, they're -- we're basically getting called to send out photographers and producers to cover the story and get down to, you know, what actually caused this.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And Kathy...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I haven't had any reports back yet.
NGUYEN: Not yet. And, you know, as you're covering this, at least your people on the ground are, I mean, what are you hearing as to what sparked this? We heard a little bit earlier that it's a transmission glitch, more of a technical thing. Is that what you're hearing there on the ground?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what we heard, that it was some sort of transmission problem. And we were told it is as far north as Daytona, and went as far south as the Florida Keys. Although, the last I heard is that power is back up in the Keys and that it's slowly getting back up in various neighborhoods. But they don't anticipate it, you know, to be like the flip of a switch and everything will be cured.
LEMON: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, that it's going to take some time, although they seem to think that it will be taken care of sometime today. That's what I've heard.
LEMON: Kathy Molgari from Miami News Net.
We thank you very much for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM. If you get any more information, please feel free to give us a call back.
But as Kathy was saying -- this is also from NERC, that Jeanne Meserve talked about, this guy from NERC who -- Stan Johnson, who has been giving her all the information, says large portions of Dade and the city of Miami are affected, but they believe that -- they have the sense that it is contained. So the power that she's saying may be coming back up in the Keys maybe because they have contained it in some way, but we'll keep on top of it.
NGUYEN: And this reaches to a lot of different areas throughout Florida, which includes Broward County, and that is where Fort Lauderdale is, and they are facing another problem. A tornado warning has been issued in that area.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: A former Democratic rival-turned-supporter topping our Political Ticker today. Connecticut senator and former presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd endorses Barack Obama. Dodd's endorsement in Cleveland comes a week before the primaries in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: There are differences, but both of these candidates care about health care, care about restoring jobs in America, care about restoring faith and confidence in our public institutions. And I'm confident together they'll make a difference in that effort. But I think the real opportunity for us is to win back that White House and get us back on track again is in the candidacy of Barack Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Dodd left the White House race after -- just after the Iowa caucuses.
Barack Obama was endorsed in Cleveland but attacked in Cincinnati. Attacked hard. It happened at a really for John McCain as radio talk show host Bill Cunningham was introducing the Republican front-runner. And as you're about to hear, things really got personal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CUNNINGHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, my fellow Americans, now we have a hack (ph) Chicago-style, Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you're going to have in your pocket is change.
At some point in the near future the media is going to peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama. That day will come. Then you'll know the truth about his business dealings with Rezko, when he got sweetheart deals in Chicago, and the illegal loans that he received. At some point the media will quit taking sides in this things and maybe start covering Barack Hussein Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: But when McCain spoke he said he regretted Cunningham's earlier comments, and he called Senator Obama and Clinton honorable Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLEN DEGENERES, TALK SHOW HOST: You have a solution, and that's why we love you, Hillary. That's why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: What's she doing? She's supposed to be on a TV screen. A cameo on the campaign trail.
Ellen DeGeneres popped up via satellite at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Washington yesterday. The talk show host and the senator joked about whether Clinton would ban glitter if she's elected president.
DeGeneres also asked Clinton how she would turn things around after a string of losses to Barack Obama. Clinton replied she plans to win Ohio and Texas next week. That is her strategy.
According to our CNN estimate, Barack Obama leads in overall Democratic delegate count with 1,360 so far. Hillary Clinton has 1,269 delegates -- 2,025 are needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain is way out in front with 994 delegates. He needs 197 more to nail down the GOP nomination.
All the latest campaign news is available at your fingertips. Just go to CNNpolitics.com. Plus, analysis from the best political team on television, the best political team on the Internet, the best political team anywhere.
NGUYEN: In the galaxy, the universe, in...
LEMON: In the galaxy, in the universe, all over. That and more at CNNpolitics.com.
NGUYEN: The history of man.
Well, you know, forget about delegates, because the folks down in Miami, all they want is their power back on at this hour.
Here's what we know -- there are massive power outages in Miami, and this spans a large portion of south Florida, to be exact. From Miami to Palm Beach County. And according to the North American Electric Reliability Council this started, oh, shortly after 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
Eight power plants are down. Now, they include a mix of fossil and nuclear plants. And we understand a large portion of Dade and the city of Miami is affected. Some estimates put it around four million people affected in Miami. But so far we understand, according to officials, that they have a sense that this is contained, and some of it is coming back on very slowly.
But here's the problem -- no one knows exactly what caused the transmissions to go down, which eventually led to the outages. And you're looking at all these people on the streets. They're trying, I assume, to get home because there's no power at their businesses, their place of work.
And the stoplights are out. You can see how there's a large jam just in this one particular intersection. And if you look very closely at the stoplight there, there is nothing blinking. You see no lights at all.
Again, a power outage in a large portion of southern Florida, from Miami down to Palm Beach County. Again, at this point there's no concern by the Department of Homeland Security that this has anything to do with any kind of a terrorism incident.
At this point they do believe it's just a transmission going down. But as you can see, they're having to have officers on the street just to make sure that traffic flows smoothly, and that doesn't even begin to deal with all the businesses that are without power, perhaps even without security.
LEMON: CNN NEWSROOM continues with an update on our breaking news -- power outage affecting Florida.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. A massive power outage in Florida.
Joining us now from Palm Beach County, our very own Susan Candiotti.
Susan, we were just talking about this breaking news. Remember that on Friday, from Miami International Airport. Now I guess what everyone wants to know, are they having problems because of this outage at the airport?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not anymore, Don. And when they did have a slight power outage, they say it hit them at about 1:30, and it did affect some flights that were about to take off. Sorry about the beeping going on in the background here.
It did affect some planes that were about to take off, but only for a short period of time. I'm told that power was back on in less than a half hour. It never affected the air terminal, and air traffic controllers, and that everything was back on line by about 2:00 this afternoon.
So, some minor problems at Miami International Airport, but everything is back on line.
LEMON: OK. Thank you very much for that, Susan Candiotti.
You want to go to Betty or do you want to do this...
NGUYEN: Actually, we're going to be listening in to our affiliate WSVN, because along with the airports, a lot of people want to know what is happening at the schools throughout the Miami area as the power outage is affecting millions of people.
Let's take a listen to their coverage as they talk about keeping kids in school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: However, if maybe a parent maybe didn't hear about the power problem, or feels a need to pick up that child anyway, you will allow the parent to sign the child out, is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct, although -- but what I don't want to happen is for that to start some type of frenzy and just having parents feel compelled to just rush off to these schools, because what will happen is they'll have to navigate through these roadways, through these intersections, through these highways and freeway systems, and a lot of them, as you very well are aware of, don't have any power. That's not a very safe thing to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You raise an excellent point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now their kids are with us. They're in the care and custody of us. We're going to take the best care that we possibly can of them. We feel that the safest place for them is there at the schoolhouse, and that's how we're treating this right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you raise an excellent point. However, how -- how long -- hopefully this problem will be resolved very quickly. But how long are you prepared to hold the kids?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean, we're fresh out of this thing right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, it's still young. I'm hoping that we can stabilize this. It's a very fragile situation right now.
Hopefully we can get this thing stabilized and begin to mitigate our way through it. Hopefully if we get some compliance out there from all of the citizens of Miami-Dade County, and we can get these streets cleared, we can then begin some type of orderly process in addressing the more urgent needs of this county as a whole.
NGUYEN: OK. We've been listening to our affiliate WSVN in Miami talking about the state of the schools there. Obviously, the power is out and a lot of parents watching want to know what's -- well, that's if they can even watch since the power is out. But a lot of parents experiencing this power outage, wanting to know, what should I do, should I go pick up my kids right now?
And what the schools are saying at this point, at least that one in particular, is just go ahead and leave them for the time being. It's the safest place for them. Also, they're not running the buses at this hour either.
So, again, much of southern Florida dealing with massive power outages, and that is affecting millions of people.
We are staying on top of this story and, of course, we're following it minute by minute, and we'll bring you more right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: All right. The big story in the CNN NEWSROOM this afternoon, a power outage in Florida. According to our affiliates, affecting some four million people, happening mostly in the southern part of the state, but from the Keys all the way up to Daytona Beach. We are told several counties involved -- Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach counties. A number of counties there.
We spoke with Detective Robert Williams from the Miami-Dade Police Department just a short time ago. He gave us an update on the situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DET. ROBERT WILLIAMS, MIAMI-DADE POLICE: I'm hearing from our communications system manager that it is countywide. I'm also hearing that it's also in Broward. I've seen certain other news agencies reporting that it's also as far as as Sarasota, which I can't confirm that. I can only confirm Miami-Dade County.
LEMON: OK. What's the problem, do you know? Is there -- obviously, I don't see any weather situation there, correct me if I'm wrong, looking at these live pictures now from our affiliate.
WILLIAMS: Well, I just came in from outside. It has been raining pretty hard here.
LEMON: OK.
WILLIAMS: A weather front coming through. Whether or not that's responsible for the power outage, I would not be able to tell you. That's something you might want to check with Florida Power and Light.
LEMON: I was going to ask you, since you're the police officer there, you haven't spoken with the power company, have you?
WILLIAMS: Well, we have called in to the power company from our department in order to find out what the cause is, if the cause is within Miami-Dade County or if it's outside the county itself.
LEMON: When did you start getting calls about this?
WILLIAMS: We probably started getting calls in maybe about 20 minutes ago. At that time I was outside near the building here, and there was a large storm passing through. Like I said, whether or not that's the cause of it, we don't know yet.
LEMON: So storm passing through. So 20 minutes ago you're hearing it's entire Miami-Dade County, correct?
WILLIAMS: That's correct.
LEMON: And then also hearing Broward and possibly Sarasota?
WILLIAMS: Correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: All right. That interview moments ago here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Again, a developing story happening in Florida. We are told by the affiliates there, and this is coming from our affiliates, up to four million people without power. And I'm not sure -- that's not the airport.
We're told by our Susan Candiotti just a short time ago, the airport working on a backup generator, working on a backup system there. So everything's fine. They were down for a while, but lots of folks down.
And Betty, we've been watching traffic here, and officers directing traffic, and red lights that are out. So, a big portion of Florida without power, and they are still trying to find out why. We are told some eight plants were down at one point.
NGUYEN: And they still don't know exactly, as you mentioned, what caused that. Of course, we'll continue to follow that story.
But the folks in Fort Lauderdale have a double whammy today. They are not only dealing with some power outages, but also with a tornado threat that rolled through the area.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: So we have the weather here, and we also have this power outage happening in Florida. We want to tell you, new information we're getting is that the Miami-Dade Metro Rail not working at this point. We saw a picture of that just a short time ago.
We also saw some accidents that have been happening on the street because of the stoplights are out as well. A big concern there in Florida.
According to our affiliates, again, as many as four million people -- that's a rail line right there that we're looking at. It's at the top left of your screen.
These pictures, of course, courtesy of our affiliates, WSVN, WPLG, down in Florida. They're on top of that story. That's the rail line we've been telling you about, and if you're stuck on a train or you need to get somewhere, not good news for you.
That's our breaking news here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're going to update you just on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Breaking news in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Want to tell you about a power outage, new information we have here in Florida.
This is according to NERC that we've been telling you about, the North American Electric Reliability Council. The spokesperson there, Stan Johnson, said this went farther up the east and west coast of Florida than they had originally thought.
It went up to Tampa on the west, almost up to Jacksonville on the east. And Progress Energy in Jacksonville said they had 153,000 customers who lost power. They expect to have that back by 2:30, which would be a few moments if they are accurate on that. Tampa Electric Company is also hoping to restore power to its customers this afternoon.
And we're told by the same agency that three of the eight units affected were nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, which is a power plant center there, at Turkey Point. The total number of plants affected still eight. No other names, locations for us yet. And all this new information that we have.
But we're also told that five of the Turkey Point reactors went down. Two are already back on line. Our Gary Tuchman joins us -- not Gary. Sorry. John Zarella.
Pardon me for that, John -- is in Tallahassee, he joins us on the phone.
What do you have for us, John?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. Well, just a little bit more. Turkey Point, of course, is the Florida Power and Light nuclear plant down in south Florida, in the Homestead area. So, clearly, the outages at the power plants, even all the way down to Homestead, Florida, it's a very large nuclear power station.
I am here in Tallahassee, and I spoke with a spokeswoman over at the state Emergency Operation Center just a few moments ago. And she told me that at the EOC, they are monitoring the situation, but they don't know much more than anyone else does at this point. They do not know whether it was a system error or weather related at this point.
They believe that the primary outages have been confined to Miami-Dade County and to Broward County. And they also say that from what they are told that some of the power is beginning to come back online. But they say literally, pardon the pun, but they are in the dark as well as far as knowing how long it's going to take for the power to be restored or what actually caused this. And, again, at this point, state emergency managers are monitoring the situation -- Don.
LEMON: OK. Hey, real quickly, that information you have was good for us. Turkey Point, is that sort of a convergence point where everything comes in and then they send it out to the area?
ZARRELLA: Well, it's a massive nuclear plant down south. I do not know, you know, how many feeder lines go out of there, where exactly it leads to south and west or it (AUDIO GAP) into the Miami- Dade (AUDIO GAP)
LEMON: Hey, John, can you hear me? John, if you're on the phone, I need you to get closer to a window or get outside, because we lost your connection there. But John, if you come back, just jump right back in.
But that is John Zarrella who is in Tallahassee talking to us about this Turkey Point, Betty, where he says it's a large nuclear plant there in the south and probably a convergence point where the power comes in and then they distribute it out to other parts of the state and other parts of the area.
NGUYEN: They have eight units there --
LEMON: Yes.
NGUYEN: -- Three of them were dealing with that nuclear reactor. Three of the eight units were affected. And, I think, at last report we had -- we understand that two of them were up and running.
LEMON: Were back up and running.
NGUYEN: So, trying to keep count of all of this. But bottom line is you got 4.4 million customers, at least that amount, affected by this massive power outage in Florida. And just look at the roadway right there.
LEMON: Yes.
NGUYEN: People are stuck on freeways. The lights are obviously not working. And they're trying to get through that traffic without an officer standing by to direct them. So, it's a good thing that we haven't seen a lot of accidents, because it could be pretty chaotic --
LEMON: We've seen a few, though. Just a couple.
NGUYEN: Just a few minor fender-benders. It seems like people are being pretty civil about it.
LEMON: Yes, but it's going to be even more important to get it back up because rush hour is fast approaching. It's 2:30 -- 2:32, as a matter of fact, here in the east. And that's where we're looking at the problem down in Florida, down on the coast which is East Coast time.
Our Jeanne Meserve joins us now to tell us about what this means as far as homeland security. She's our homeland security correspondent.
We've been hearing a lot about this Turkey facility that we've been calling it, Jeanne, and all these other places down there in Florida. Can you update us?
MESERVE: Well, first let me tell you that the Department of Homeland Security says at this point in time says there's no indication of any nexus to terrorism here. But, neither they nor the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, to whom we've spoken, knows exactly where this originated or what exactly the cause was.
According to the NERC, there are a total of eight plants still affected. When it comes to Turkey Point, we think we have consistent information here. According to one source, five of the reactors there went down. Two of them are already back online. Another source says three of the total of eight units known to be affected, both nuclear and nonnuclear, Turkey Point and non-Turkey Point, were at Turkey Point.
You see some pictures of it right there. It's a massive complex there run by Florida Power and Light. Once again, we think that a total of five of those reactors went down. Two of them have come back online. Three are still down. Those three are part of the total of eight total power plants that we're told are offline at this point in time.
According to the NERC, this is wider spread than they had originally thought. The first time I talked to them, they thought it was the city of Miami and parts of Dade County. They are now saying that it goes up as far as Tampa on the West coast and almost up to Jacksonville on the east. They have been talking to the utilities in the area.
They tell us that Progress Energy in Jacksonville had 153,000 customers lose power. That's a small number of the total here. But, still, very significant. That company expects to have power back to them, we're told, by 2:30 this afternoon. Tampa Electric Company, which obviously handles the power in the Tampa area, also hoping to restore power to its customers this afternoon.
But as Florida Power and Light, which is most severely affected here, from the NERC anyway, we haven't gotten any estimate on when their customers will see the lights on again. But once again, nothing on cause or origin at this point in time.
LEMON: And Jeanne, we've seen from history, just when these things happen, that, oftentimes, when one goes down, it's sort of a domino effect. If you remember the blackout back in 2003, in the fall of 2003. Same thing, up in -- on the East coast. One thing went out, that caused another section to go out. It just basically overburdened the next point and then the next point gets overburdened because it doesn't have a fallback on it.
MESERVE: That's right. They go down just like bowling pins, at least that's what has happened in the past, particularly in that last big blackout on the East coast where it started with a branch hitting a power line out in Ohio. It started at one power plant and the right alarms didn't go off and before you knew it, it had spread all up and down the East coast.
It's been a real question about the grid and how interlocking its pieces are. There have been some real efforts to try and segment it a little bit more, so hopefully they can contain these things when they happen. I have to tell you, though, there are blackouts all the time in the United States. It might surprise you to hear that.
But in addition to the brown-outs we see in the summertime when the system is overstressed from air-conditioning and the like, there are blackouts on a regular basis somewhere in the country. A lot of people say it's because we have not been investing the way we need to invest in our electrical infrastructure, particularly in the transmission lines. But, again, whether this is a factor in this particular case in Florida, we don't know yet, because we don't know yet exactly what caused this.
LEMON: Jeanne Meserve, good information. And we appreciate you joining us. Thank you.
NGUYEN: And as we continue to follow the power outages in Florida, we do want to get you to some business news.
Let's get you caught up on this. We all know the cost of health care is enough to make you sick, but wait until you hear where these costs are heading. CNN's Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with that. But, first, a check of the markets.
Hey there, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Betty. And I just want to mention that Florida Power and Light is actually a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, FPL. Its shares are down right now about one third of a percent. And it says on its sheet that it has more than 72,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines obviously serving the sunshine state. And we do -- to Jeanne's point, we certainly remember a blackout here just a few years ago, the summer of '03 in New York City. We had a big blackout.
In terms of other business news, we want to talk about what the market's doing. We have a nice turnaround rally, a little reassurance from a big tech company. IBM raising its outlook for this year. Also announcing a $15 billion stock buyback. IBM shares are up four percent, which is helping to lift other tech stocks like Intel and Microsoft. All three of them trade on the Dow.
Right now, the Dow Industrials are up 144 points. The Nasdaq is up 29 points, each up more than one percent. While the health of the stock market always an open question, so is the health of the health care system. A new government report says health care spending, both overall by the federal government, will virtually double by 2017. And the percentage of our dollars spent on health care will go up as well.
Health care spending currently makes up 16 percent of GDP. That will rise to 20 percent by 2017, according to the report, or more than $4 trillion. The main reasons? Baby boomers. They are getting older and the rising costs of drugs and other medical technology -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Well Susan, you know drug makers get a whole lot of criticism for high prices, for spending too much on advertising. But I understand one drug maker is actually pulling a pretty well-known ad.
LISOVICZ: It is a very well-known ad. In fact, we've seen it on our air, one drug company pulling a high-profile ad for an entirely different reason. Pfizer is pulling an ad featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, the inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart.
Some critics say the ads for cholesterol drug lipitor are deceiving because Jarvik is not a practicing medical doctor and because a stunt double is used in some scenes. Pfizer concedes the ad led to some misimpressions, Betty.
NGUYEN: I got you. And the depression drugs, talking about them lately. They're also coming under fire today. What's going on with that?
LISOVICZ: Researchers claim anti-depressants may not work. They're study maintains that drugs like prozac are not much better than taking a placebo.
NGUYEN: Really?
LISOVICZ: The study looked at several different clinical trials, compiled all of the information and found that those who were depressed scored only slightly higher on a measure of depression than those who were not given medication. As with stories like this, obviously consult your doctor before changing your routine. And that's a quick look at business news. Back to you, Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, Susan Lisovicz. Thank you for that, Susan.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
LEMON: All right, we're going to update you now on this developing story happening in Florida. We've been telling you about this power outage. This is the Turkey Point facility that we've been telling you about, where apparently a number of the units went down, at least three of the eight units affected went down.
This is Turkey Point. It is in Homestead, Florida. Actually about two miles east of Homestead, Florida, which is next to Biscayne National Park. Thirty-five miles, we're told, south of Miami. And much of the power for the parts that have been -- have gone out, much of the power comes from this one plant, which is located near Homestead, Florida.
So, exactly what's at the bottom of this? Why did much of the East coast of Florida go black is a big question here. Leaving some four million people without power. We're on top of it. We'll try to find the answers for you coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: CNN affiliate, WSVN, speaking now with Florida Power and Light. Let's listen in to them.
LYNN MARTINEZ, WSVN CORRESPONDENT: OK. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
MARTINEZ: Michael Biafiani (ph) there with Florida Power and Light.
Let's turn things over. We want to reiterate by the way, still, we don't know why, according to FP&L -- says they are still investigating, although CNN is reporting that five reactors went down at this place you're looking at right now, Turkey Point.
Let's turn things over to Belkys Nerey, she was able to come into work all the way from Coral Gables.
Looking good, got your hair done. Give us an update on what's going on.
BELKYS NEREY, WSVN CORRESPONDENT: I made it, but it wasn't easy Lynn, I'll tell you that much. I can set the scene for you, if you will. Anyone that hasn't been out on the road that maybe has been watching us out on television and listening to what's going on. It was slow going, most definitely, the whole way in. I was out on Miracle Mile. And it must have taken about 15 minutes or so to go just about a few blocks.
No traffic lights working whatsoever on the way -- the whole way down Miracle Mile. And this was immediately after the -- the outage occurred, it was just after 1:00, it was about 1:30, 1:45 so at that point, I guess, Coral Gables police, Miami police, city officials hadn't yet, maybe, dispatched officers to help with the traffic situation and start directing the traffic.
I would imagine that maybe -- now that it's now 2:44, perhaps now there are more officers out at the busier intersections helping out in that regard, to direct the traffic. The good news is, people were being very respectful of the outage. Everyone was stopping at all of the major intersections, treating those intersections that had no traffic lights as a four-way stop, which is how police officials want you to approach these intersections when you get to them.
So, that was the good news. Everyone was pretty cooperative in terms of -- of the traffic. And things were going smoothly, but slowly. Once I got out -- up on 95, that was pretty much business as usual. That was pretty easygoing, except for that little section where it backs up just past downtown. And once I got over the causeway here to get down to the beach to head over to the station, on Alton Road, Pinetree Drive, 71st Street Causeway, all of those traffic lights were working, so over here on the beach side, everything was good, because everything was working.
But another thing that seemed to be affected on the way, because I was trying to call work, I was trying to make several phone calls, the cell phone service, very spotty. You try to call and all you got was a really fast busy signal like either everyone was trying to call at once or circuits were down or lines were down or somehow the power outage was affecting the cell phone service, which obviously would make some sense.
LEMON: All right, you're listening to coverage of our affiliate WSVN. And the reason that they are going with this, Bellkys Nerey for those of you who don't know, Belkys Nerey, Craig Stevens, 5:00, 6:00, 10:00 and 11:00 anchor team there. So they were talking with their main anchor talking about how tough it was for her to get in and describing her commute in to work today and how -- if it was at all unusual. So, again, you were listening to one of the anchors from WSVN describe how she was getting in to work today and the problems it posed.
Joining us on the phone now, probably familiar with that anchor team is Delrish Moss, who is a Miami-Dade police detective.
Tell us what you have, any new information you have there, sir.
VOICE OF DET. DELRISH MOSS, MIAMI-DADE POLICE: Well, most of the information that we have is that in different places there are sporadic power outages. And FP&L seems to be pretty good at having the rolling outages, so we're having spots where traffic slows because of no lights.
We put a policeman there. And then a few minutes later the lights come back on and then we move on to another spot. We're seeing some slowdowns, but for the most part we're not seeing major problems.
LEMON: So the lights are coming back on -- the lights coming back on because of generators or because the power is slowly coming back up?
MOSS: Well, they are having the power come back up in different places. So, they're having power outages, but it's not a massive outage at every intersection at every time. What we're seeing in different spots it's like patches that are going down and coming back up.
LEMON: And people are probably wondering, and I know you obviously have a backup for this, you heard the news people there at WSVN talking about the phones, everybody calling in at once because they don't know what's going on. As far as the 9-1-1 system and people calling in to police, what are you guys doing to ensure that that's OK?
MOSS: Well, we have a -- we have a backup system that prepares for power outages. And as you know, we've had hurricanes here where power has been out for months at a time or weeks at a time at least. And so, we've always been prepared for the eventuality of a power outage and so that people don't lose emergency service. But most of the calls that we're getting have to do with people being stuck in elevators and things of that nature and people who are just simply concerned with what's going on.
LEMON: Yes.
MOSS: It's not overwhelming the system.
LEMON: Well -- and that is a concern if you are stuck in an elevator. Also we're getting word that the rail service there in Miami was out and people possibly stuck on trains as well.
MOSS: The rail service was out for a little while. The Miami- Dade Police Department is handling that. I'm the city of Miami. But the rail service was out for a short time. And they have gotten that back up and running because they are trying to get people down off the trains. And we're advising people that if you don't have to be out there right now, to avoid being out. LEMON: A lot of stuff, too,it gets on the radio, CNN radio as well, so if people don't have power and they can't watch television, they can hear us. What advice do you have for people down in the Florida area if they are hearing your voice?
MOSS: My advice is not to panic, to stay in if you need to stay in. But if you go out, just remember to be courteous to the other drivers that are out there. And remember that if you come to a place where there is no light and there's no policemen, treat it as a four- way stop sign. Be courteous, because when you're not courteous, that's when the accidents occur.
LEMON: No injuries, no one hurt. We've seen some few fender- benders watching -- just looking at the video here. We don't know exactly what happened. But no major injuries to report here, correct?
MOSS: No major injuries. I think the big thing is now we're moving into our rush hour which is already a challenge and this will just create a slightly larger challenge.
LEMON: OK. All right. Good. Thank you very much, Detective Delrish Moss from Miami-Dade Police Department. We appreciate you joining us.
MOSS: No problem. That's Miami.
LEMON: All right. Thank you.
MOSS: All right.
NGUYEN: And of course, we're going to continue to monitor the situation in Miami, and large portions of southern Florida, as massive power outages are taking effect and some 4.4 million people are simply in the dark at this hour. But as you heard, there are no major injuries, although some scary situations with people stuck in elevators and other things of nature. Of course, we'll continue to monitor it.
But in the meantime, let's talk about religion in America, because it may be even more dynamic than we thought. A new study finds that 44 percent of Americans have either switched affiliations with their own faith. Now, they've also changed to different faiths, as well, joined a faith for the first time or even turned away from religion altogether.
So joining us now from Washington is John Green who is a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on religion and public life, Os Guiness, author of "The Case for Civility."
Thanks for being with us.
JOHN GREEN, SENIOR FELLOW, PEW FORUM: Good to be with you.
OS GUINESS, AUTHOR, "THE CASE FOR CIVILITY": My pleasure.
NGUYEN: Well, let's start with the first bit of numbers that we're able to get today. John, 28 percent of Americans have left their religious affiliation that they grew up with. What's behind the switch?
GREEN: Well, there are a lot of things behind that switch. Some of it's generational change. Young people are much more likely to leave the faith they were raised in.
But there are other factors, as well, and some of it has to do with disaffection with the religions and some of it has to do with seeking for different spiritual paths, but a lot of it really reflects the diversity of American society. There are more religious faiths to leave these days, but also more religious faiths to go to.
NGUYEN: That is true. And Os, let me ask you this, as you look at these numbers and they come out today, is this an argument against organized religion?
GUINNESS: Hardly, but I think also in terms of what John said, it's also the effect of consumerism. In other words, people are hopping and shopping, channel surfing religiously and they're always looking for something better. And at the heart of our modern society is the idea of choice and change and that's behind a great deal of it.
NGUYEN: Well, before we get to what they find as better, let's talk about where most people are leaving, which particular religion. John, what were you able to find?
GREEN: Well, the Roman Catholic Church has lost an awful lot of its childhood adherence over the lifetime of the people that we surveyed. In fact, if it hadn't been for immigration into the United States, the Roman Catholics would have seen their numbers truly plummet.
But there are a lot of the main line Protestant churches that are also losing members. And the biggest gainers is the unaffiliated category, which is about twice as big as it was when people were raised.
NGUYEN: And that includes mega-churches. Os, what do you think the mega-churches are doing that's attracting so many people?
GUINNESS: Well, they've got a whole way of life and an extraordinary range of programs. But to me as you look at the unaffiliated, in my experience, there are not that many more atheists and agnostics, you just have a lot of people who see the perceived extremism, say of the religious right or behind them of the Muslim extremists.
And so, they're reacting against religion as a whole and many of them are actually not particularly religious as the report says, but they are actually deeply religious into new-age spirituality and things like that.
NGUYEN: And a lot of people are moving toward their own personal form of religion. John, let me ask you this, because another number that we were able to discover in the study, 37 percent of Americans are married to someone of a different religious background. What does this say about the importance of religion in America?
GREEN: Well, it says a couple of things. One is it says that we've got a lot of religious diversity and that there's a lot of tolerance for interfaith marriage. And people aren't just accepting of having someone of a different faith living on the same block or in the same city, but they are tolerant of them living in the same house. I think it also suggests that people are much more open to other faith perspectives.
NGUYEN: Were you surprised at all, Os, in looking at this new study and seeing where Americans stand when it comes to religion?
GUINNESS: Not at all. I think you've seen this melting down. I call it a melting down rather than a new dynamism. But i think it accentuates the need for the creation a civil public square. And many people are tired of the extremes of the religious right on one side and the secular left on the other and the national need to rebuild a new civil public square is one of America's most urgent issues.
NGUYEN: Os Guinness, author of "The Case for Civility," along with John Green with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Thank you both for joining us today with your insights.
GREEN: You're very welcome.
GUINNESS: Thank you.
LEMON: We're trying to find out exactly what caused a huge power outage in Florida today. Some 4.4 million people without power. Much of it still off right now, although they are getting it back online. We'll have details to come here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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LEMON: All right, what caused that power outage in Florida? We still don't know at this point, but we're trying to work with Florida Power and Light to try to get some information on that.
I believe we have someone on now. Is it Karen?
VOICE OF KAREN VISSEPO, FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT: Yes ...
LEMON: Karen Vissepo?
VISSEPO: ...this is Karen Vissepo.
LEMON: Karen Vissepo?
VISSEPO: Vissepo, yes.
LEMON: Yes, OK, do we know the cause?
VISSEPO: We do not have a cause for the outage as of yet. We are looking into it and we will be providing that information once it becomes available.
LEMON: OK, at the height of this, how many people without power?
VISSEPO: Between 600,000 to 800,000.
LEMON: OK, we were getting from affiliates there -- is that just in Miami-Dade County or is that system-wide?
VISSEPO: System-wide, FP&L provides service to the 35 counties throughout the state of Florida, and system-wide, about 800,000 customers were affected, initially affected.
LEMON: That's systemwide for FP&L?
VISSEPO: Yes ...
LEMON: Right, OK.
VISSEPO: We serve a total of 4.4 million customer count and that's where I believe the mistake was made.
LEMON: OK, so that's FP&L, now, are there other providers in the area who were knocked off as well, or is this for everyone who was out, and I want to get this straight, Karen, every single person who was out is 600,000 to 800,000.
VISSEPO: We can only speak to FP&L.
LEMON: OK, that's what I wanted to know.
VISSEPO: And other utilities might have experienced outages but for them, you will have to contact them.
LEMON: Got it, that's what we want to make sure. OK, so you service 4.4 million as far as FP&L goes and there are other providers in the area, you had 600,000 to 800,000 out. Tell me where you are now as far as getting those 600,000 to 800,000 back on?
VISSEPO: I am in Miami, and most of the outages are taking place throughout the state of Florida, however, a number -- majority of them are down here in Miami, Broward and Palm Beach.
LEMON: Where are you in your efforts to get the power back on? Are they still out -- you're still out 600,000 to 800,000 people still without power or have you gotten some of these systems back up?
VISSEPO: No, customers have been receiving power back. This is something that started around 1:30 or so if I am not mistaken. And we initiated the emergency response. We have -- well total -- a well- planned plan, emergency plan, and the system responded as designed, meaning that whatever type of situation the system felt, it is designed to contain the situation, and that's exactly what took place.
LEMON: OK.
VISSEPO: And right now, we're restoring power in a systematic fashion ...
LEMON: OK.
VISSEPO: ...which means that we're going by portion. And we're doing this so that the system performs properly and ...
LEMON: Hey, Karen ...
VISSEPO: ...and it's a way to do it safely -- yes?
LEMON: Yes, Karen, just as you're talking about do it safely and perform properly, not to overburden other systems. We're hearing that it could be up to 10 hours before everybody is back up?
VISSEPO: I cannot comment on that. That is not information that I have available.
LEMON: OK.
VISSEPO: We're looking right now at about two, three, four hours for the majority of the customers to get power back.
LEMON: OK, Karen Vissepo from Florida Power and Light, we appreciate you.
We're back in a moment.
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