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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Lights Back on in Times Square
Aired August 15, 2003 - 23:00 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at our live shot now, here at New York's Times Square. It's a little bit past 11:00 Eastern time on a Friday night in New York. There is no place like Times Square, the lights finally back on, as they are throughout most of the city. A lot of New Yorkers, a lot of visitors, just walking around, happy to have lights, happy to have stores to go into, air conditioning to feel. New York at its finest.
Welcome back to our continuing hour-long edition of NEWS NIGHT.
There have been a lot of stories in this blackout, a lot of people who have improvised their way through the darkness. Today brought relief for a lot of people, but there is still a ways to go in getting back to normal, and a lot of headaches still to endure.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer has a look at the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A round of applause in Times Square for withstanding perhaps the largest power outage in American history.
In much of the northeast and Canada, the lights flickered on. Still, so many images not seen on normal days. Street sleepers, people waiting in line for ice, struggling back to routines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think once the lights go back on, the city is going to be fine. It's New York, it's what we do.
BLITZER: A transit worker in Toronto, delivering the bad news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no subways, there are no buses, there are no streetcars. There is nothing. Until further notice, we can't do nothing. If you want to use the phone, you have to go outside because there's no phones here. Unfortunately, we're all stuck together, so let's all be happy.
BLITZER: Little things helped. Like free sneakers given to people without transportation in New York.
Those who could get around still struggled. This blackout covered an area that's home to some 50 million people. More than 10 million people in New York state alone were without power at some point.
In city after city, officials could not give an exact timetable for full restoration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hearing it could be anywhere from late night to the latter part of the weekend.
BLITZER: Municipalities coped with one problem after another spawned by the massive crisis. At least three deaths related to the blackout.
In New York, dozens of serious fires, several hundred elevator and subway rescues. A record number of emergency medical service calls. A plea from the mayor to conserve energy and think before going back to work.
MARK BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: There are worse things than taking a summer Friday off from work.
BLITZER: Cleveland got much of its power back quickly, but suffered one of its worst ever water crises. All four major pumping stations in the city shutdown. Then restored this morning, but with a caveat.
JANE CAMPBELL, MAYOR OF CLEVELAND: When the water begins to flow, you have to -- for 24 hours you must boil the water 4 minutes.
BLITZER: Detroit officials counted nearly 100 arrests overnight, not a huge number for a city that size. Everywhere, a sense that it could have been worse.
GEORGE PATAKI, FMR. NEW YORK GOVERNOR: We have to have answers to this. It's 2003. We are an energy-dependent society.
BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, getting all the lights back on everywhere may take days. Figuring out exactly what went wrong and fixing the problems will take a whole lot longer than that.
Today, President Bush called the blackout a wakeup call. Question is, who needs to wake up?
Senior White House correspondent John King joins us with more -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That is the question in Washington tonight, Anderson.
The president meant a wakeup call in the sense that he says this massive blackout should give new urgency to the idea of expanding and modernizing the nation's electrical power grid.
But with that policy debate comes already a fierce political debate as well, and calls for several investigations. Democrats say Mr. Bush and Republicans share at least some of the blame, they say supporting energy deregulation and things like that, again in the Democrat's words, the Republicans are beholden to energy interests and did not take steps to prevent things like this.
But Mr. Bush made clear today that he begs to differ. He says updating the electricity grid would already be in progress if Congress had passed energy legislation he submitted more than a year ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Congress needs to complete work on a comprehensive energy plan that among other things will help us modernize our infrastructure around America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, while out in California today, the president spoke by telephone with the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the two leaders agreed to form a joint task force to determine just what caused the blackout. That task force also charged with determining whether any new steps can be taken to prevent that cascading effect that left tens of millions without power.
That will be one of at least three investigations. The House Energy Committee chairman Billy Tauzin says he will launch hearings when Congress comes back from its August recess and the House committee that specializes in Homeland Security says it too will investigate the blackout with an eye on seeing if it exposed vulnerabilities that could be exploited by terrorists.
Look for the Senate to add to the list of investigations and the Department of Homeland Security also will explore whether there are lessons now for the government's war on terrorism. All of that, of course, on top of this policy debate over how to improve the electricity transmission network, and if there's agreement on that, the big question will be, who will pay for it -- Anderson.
COOPER: John, is the White House concerned at all about the effect of this blackout on the upcoming presidential elections? I mean, do they see this as an issue that they have to deal with before it sort of gets into that arena?
KING: They see it as an issue of any crisis tests a leader. Now it is the mayors and the governors who tend to be tested the most because they are the ones where the city is without power, the city is without services.
But because of the scope of this, the president had no choice, and the White House said he was quite eager to acknowledge there's a national problem.
Now, the president says he's been talking about this for sometime. It is true he has been demanding an energy bill for sometime. The president himself has very infrequently emphasized the electricity problem as one of the reasons he wants that electricity bill. Look for his emphasis to change now.
Now question, this debate has political momentum, but it often gets derailed, and most times when the energy debate gets derailed, it is because of issues that have nothing to do with electricity. The big question now will be how does Washington respond. Clearly, lawmakers from all the states effected want quick action. The president says he wants quick action. It's a very difficult issue, never mind all the regional and political differences. There's the money issue, too, Anderson. Very tough.
COOPER: All right, John King, in Washington. John, thanks very much for that tonight.
Well, that was the president's day, as John told you. Now we want to look at what is happening in another city, in Detroit, a city that's been hit hard by the blackout.
We're joined on the phone now by Celeste Headley, a reporter for WDET Detroit Public Radio.
Celeste, thanks very much for being with us tonight.
How bad was it in Detroit from your perspective?
CELESTE HEADLEY, NPR REPORTER: All things considered, things went fairly smoothly. Still, all the same, things are pretty tough for Detroit residents.
The power is still not on in a lot of areas in Detroit. People waited for hours, literally, between two, six, even eight hours, for gasoline to start pumping at some of the gas stations, and people are still having to boil their water as water is not at full capacity.
COOPER: Did you get a sense the city or individual businesses were unprepared?
HEADLEY: To be honest, I thought the city handled it very well.
Businesses were definitely unprepared. It happened so suddenly, nobody was prepared at all. There wasn't enough ice. There weren't enough supplies. The stores ran out of D batteries very, very quickly, and people really didn't know where to go.
Luckily, the city did step in. The National Guard brought in water trucks, and they started distributing all kinds of water and the governor did start bringing in gas.
But on a whole, businesses seemed unprepared. The city handled it fairly well.
COOPER: Were you surprised -- I mean, reporting this story, it was -- it was a difficult thing, I found, in New York, finding out information, getting anywhere. You know, all the things that modern day reporters rely on, you know, especially for television, for radio, cell phones, computers, e-mail, all of that, for at least a while, was not available. Was it tough for you?
HEADLEY: Oh, it was very tough. I really felt like I was back 20, 30 years ago. We didn't have computers, cell phones, our digital records weren't working properly. My son's daycare was closed, so he had to come into the radio station and sit out in the lobby all day long. Getting place to place...
COOPER: I'll bet he loved that.
HEADLEY: A lot of our reporters didn't have gas in their cars, so my car with the full tank of gas was the one that went out all over the city, whether I was driving or not.
It was a pretty rough day for us.
COOPER: You know, I've asked a couple of various mayors and city officials, even a lieutenant governor tonight, whether they have those same kind of problems. I imagine they do. All of them have said we're very pleased with the response of our, you know, police, our fire department, our local authorities.
But from what you saw in Detroit, did you get the sense that -- I mean, is it just news organizations, or it's got to be city government as well.
HEADLEY: Everyone is having trouble. There is no question about that. I mean, there were lines miles long of people waiting new gas stations where they had heard rumors that the gas station either had gas or was going to get gas soon.
Thousands of people showed up to try and get fresh water from the National Guard trucks that were brining in water. It was definitely difficult. It's still difficult.
It's eerie to look out at the city of Detroit right now, where the street lights aren't on in most places and there's no traffic lights, and it's kind of a strange place here in the city, and people are having a hard time.
But it could have been worse...
COOPER: Was your station able -- was your station able to stay on the air?
HEADLEY: It was off the air for a little over an hour this morning.
We do have a diesel-powered generator that we had to get fuel to. There wasn't enough diesel fuel in there. But they brought that in, so we were able to stay on the air for the rest of the day.
Our lights flickered a number of times, even with the generator, and half of the station didn't have computers for quite some time. It was -- we were kind of using stone tablets and chisels there.
COOPER: It was amazing to me -- I was on the streets of New York last night around the same time, around midnight, 1:00 a.m., and, you know, local television, here in New York, they were on the air, broadcasting. Of course, no one in New York could see it. No one could watch CNN here. And really, radio became the most important thing that night. I mean, there was a man on the street corner with a transistor radio, his name was Bob, and I mean, he was the most popular man on that street corner at that time. This is really a story that radio sort shines in.
HEADLEY: That's right, and even in my neighborhood, as I -- the power went out just as I was returning home from work, and I had to get back into my car and get back to the station.
I have a solar-powered radio, and my neighbors were greedily grabbing at it so they could use it while I was gone to the station.
I heard radios on all over the place. People were getting into their cars to turn on their radios because their power was out in their home. So it is a particular time when radio kind of fulfills its special purpose.
COOPER: Yes, it certainly does. Celeste Headley, a reporter at WDET in Detroit. I appreciate you joining us tonight. Still working, keep at it. Thanks very much, Celeste.
Still ahead from Times Square, in New York, we're going to look at some neighborhoods big and small and how they coped when the lights went out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome to our special two-hour edition of NEWS NIGHT live in New York's Times Square. No place better to be on a Friday night.
There seems to be a spirit of cooperation among a lot of those effected by the blackout. The same cannot be said for some authorities here and in Canada, pointing fingers about where the problem actually occurred.
Scott Laurie of CTV has that and a look at how Canadians are dealing with the blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT LAURIE, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... ever has still left millions without power and it sparked a power play between Ontario's premier and the mayor of New York, who says the blackout was made in Canada.
BLOOMBERG: Oh, I don't think there's any question that all the power companies feel very strongly that it happened in Canada. Whether it was somebody that did something wrong or a piece of equipment that failed, or a lightening strike.
LAURIE: Premier Ernie Eves says not so.
ERNIE EVES, ONTARIO PROVINCE PREMIER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which is the northeastern center that is setup to review the entire northeast of the United States and Canada, has concluded this morning that indeed it did happen in the upper Midwest United States, not in the province of Ontario.
LAURIE: The Ontario government still has a state of emergency. It's urging people to stay home and limit electricity use. That means big energy users like factories and office towers are supposed to stay shut. Energy critics say Ontario's reliance on power imports could have made the problem even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were importing about 10 percent of our power in order to make it through a hot day. That makes us a risky partner.
LAURIE: At Canada's busiest airport, delays and no clear timeline for when backlogs will be cleared up.
On the streets, some were worried, like the Napiers (ph), whose son was on life support when power vanished.
MR. NAPIER, BLACKOUT VICTIM: Well, we wee actually quite concerned, because our family member was in an ICU on life support, so we were a little bit concerned greatly, and anyway, in the end, everything was OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, more now from here in New York City.
A sign in a restaurant nearby said this today: "We're open. We have lights, air condition and steaks." One block over, all the stores were dark, empty and locked up.
Today experiencing the blackout was all about where you were at any given moment. The day in New York now from CNN's Richard Roth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The third time was not the charm. New York City's third major power blackout in nearly 40 years turned into the longest and stickiest ever.
PATAKI: Given the safeguards that were supposed to have been put in place after the last systemic failures back in the 60's and 70's, why did the system that was supposed to have the security and the safeguards fail?
ROTH: New Yorkers awoke to find the lights were not back on yet in every home.
Battle-hardened, especially after 9-11, people in Manhattan lined up for a morning jolt of caffeine to handle this latest calamity.
BLOOMBERG: The city that burned in the 1970's when facing similar circumstances is now a very different place -- a city that has the resiliency to conquer adversity, not succumb to it.
ROTH: Thousands slept out for the evening on post office and courthouse steps and in parks. There were few reports of any looting, though more fires were started because of misuse of candles. But restoration of power took time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We managed to miss the Broadway show last night. We were all booked in, and the guys were due to go to the game here tonight, but they've actually just been told that that's been postponed till Sunday. Our flight's due to go back to the U.K. tomorrow evening, so we're not going to be around for that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I walked from my office, like 30 blocks, up to a friend's place, stayed there. I'm wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
ROTH: Transportation was clobbered. Amtrak and commuter rail lines canceled trains. The New York City subway remains shutdown.
Some airlines told passengers they were flying, but passengers at LaGuardia Airport went nowhere. Many finally managed to get off of Manhattan Island on Friday, some by bus or ferry to New Jersey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, I have no cash, so haven't got enough money to get to the airport. So, I missed my flight when I was trying to get cash.
ROTH: The blackout cost businesses. Those selling food had lost the juice.
When it came to electricity in New York, it was location, location, location. On 9th Avenue, women were getting their nails done in this salon while the store next door was closed.
The blackout slammed shut automatic bank machines and caused long lines for gasoline.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: The utility company says it's providing now 100 percent power to all customers.
There are still, though, Anderson, some scattered outages. Here on 8th Avenue in New York City outside Pennsylvania Station, it's bustling as always, except there aren't as many trains. But people's frustrations have certainly eased. But a lot of worry for the end of the summer -- can this happen again.
And one other related blackout note, important on the diplomatic circle and also for criminal circles. Libya, in fully accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, it's letter acknowledging this was delayed by the power outages, blackouts at the U.N. and on New York's East Side.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: All right, Richard Roth, live in New York. Thanks very much, Richard.
Now, you hear the phrase blackout in New York, and many of us think about the Summer of Sam. Do you remember that? That scary summer, 1977, with the blackout there was a bonanza of crime and mayhem.
Today we learned that the New York of 2003 is not the New York it was in '77.
That story from CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The blackout of 2003 versus the blackout of 1977. It's the tale of two different New York Cities, one a nightmare of violence, the other post-September 11 patience and community spirit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was nice. Nobody (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and that was the nice thing about it.
HINOJOSA: Marie and her son, Sean, spent Thursday night hanging out with neighbors in Harlem's Morningside Park, the place she avoided 26 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: in '77, I mean, it was like everybody panicked. To me, the environment that I was in, everybody panicked. They didn't know what to do. You know what I'm saying. But this year, last night, everybody pulled together. It was like, almost as if we knew this was going to happen, because it was real calm.
HINOJOSA: That calmness was still resonating with some New Yorkers.
Minnie Schneider (ph) and Lex Dunbar (ph) were catching a bite at an uptown pizza place. They said this blackout was all about the community vibe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that I hadn't -- that I had seen in passing in my apartment building for years, I didn't know them, "Hey, how you doing," and finally got to know their names and got to know them and we kind of had a little giggle about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew that was going to be the ultimate test, because if we really were going to be united, then I realized, you know, we came through, and everything is fine.
HINOJOSA: Nothing at all like 1977, when desolation and destruction reigned. This time around, Harlem's 125th Street was intact, no violence, no broken windows.
Ron Garrett (ph), who's been a barber for 15 years, was expecting the worse, but it didn't happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were very attentive to each other. You know, they were more caring. New Yorkers always come together when a tragedy happens. Sort of like 9-11, everybody was more together and stuff like that.
HINOJOSA: For these uptown kids, no electricity mean no distractions. (on camera): What was different about being with your family last night than usual?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spending more time with them, extra quality time.
HINOJOSA: Extra quality time? Why? Because no TV? You had to talk to each other. Any hugging going on. A little?
(voice-over): The day after, life was pretty much back to normal. There were baseball games, family outings, and lots of relaxation in the park and bustling shoppers roaming the streets of Harlem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm proud to be in New York now, because they can't say what they used to say about New York. We stuck together.
HINOJOSA (on camera): Everybody pulled together?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody pulled together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA: Pulling together might just be the catch phrase of the blackout of 2003, Anderson.
People expected the worst, but in a lot of ways, New Yorkers are feeling that their city is stronger and more resilient than ever.
COOPER: Proud to be a New Yorker, as that man said.
You talked about expectations. Is this the story you expected to find?
HINOJOSA: No, not at all. When I set out this morning, just having conversations with people, I wasn't sure what to expect.
And then this guy kind of said, you know, everybody came out to the park. People were having picnics. Everybody was hanging out, feeling family. And then he said, "You know what, I wish that there was an annual blackout day in New York City so that everybody could get together and just talk. No computers. No television. Just talk."
COOPER: That's interesting. I was on the Upper East Side last night, doing some live shots around midnight, and a lot of the restaurants had sort of opened up their tables, moved couches out onto the street, put out candles, and were serving beer, and people were just -- it was a party, wherever you were.
HINOJOSA: As soon as people kind of realized that it wasn't about terrorism, it was like, let's just have a good time. And thank everybody that we're here and we're alive and we're okay. No electricity, we can handle that. Just like that. It was great.
COOPER: Great story, Maria Hinojosa. Thanks very much. HINOJOSA: Good to be here.
COOPER: All right. Still a lot ahead tonight.
Next, from here in New York, a blackout? You call this a blackout? We'll take you to a place that knows something about blackouts.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back.
We are live in New York City's Times Square.
We've been hearing pretty much nothing but good stories over the last several hours, stories of good cheer over the last day, how people from Ottawa to Oyster Bay have been pulling together, taking the blackout in stride.
Well, now, multiply that by day after day for, say, oh, maybe four or five months -- no end in sight -- and you know what the people of Baghdad are dealing with.
CNN's Rym Brahimi did not find much sympathy there for us today. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was predictable. In the streets of Baghdad, there's not much sympathy for New Yorkers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I hope they can finally feel what we've been going through.
BRAHIMI: Store owner Abu Tiva (ph) says while New Yorkers count the number of hours without electricity, he's counting the number of hours he has electricity and the number is four. He only has electricity four hours a day, and he says that's bad for business.
In New York, they're working to restore electricity in days. Here, coalition authorities have promised electricity would return to its pre-war level next month, saying sabotage of power lines has delayed work on this country's electricity grids.
But Iraqis complain the United States isn't doing enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Those who brought fleets and an army and tanks to this country can't provide me with power? If they wanted to, they could do it in a matter of hours.
BRAHIMI: New Yorkers are coping with temperatures in the 90's. In Baghdad, temperatures can soar up to 55 degrees Celsius, or 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
To cope, Iraqis can buy ice on the street, or for the wealthier, generators.
These men have found brief respite in an air cooler, 1960's version, that they've linked to a generator in the neighborhood, but says this man, what New Yorkers are experiencing is nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Let them be patient, like us. We've been patient for 13 years. They have the sea, their weather is nicer, and there are other states they can go to where it's cooler.
BRAHIMI: Others see this as a punishment from above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Anything bad that happens to those who have hurt good people is a punishment from God.
BRAHIMI: Any advice to New Yorkers, we asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I say jokingly, let them link up a power strip to ours and we can send them some power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What can I tell them? Let each one hold a fan and start fanning, or let them go swim.
BRAHIMI (on camera): There may not be that many swimming pools in Baghdad, but there's the Tigris River, and Iraqis are advising New Yorkers to do what they do, head for the river and cool down.
Rym Brahimi, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: All right. Well, more on the blackout ahead. Next, we'll check some of the day's other top stories. Live, from Times Square, this is CNN.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back.
Live in New York City's Times Square, it's just about 11:36 or so, 11:37, here in New York on a Friday night in Times Square. It's getting late.
You just saw Rym Brahimi's piece from Iraq. It begs the question, do we have more in common with the folks in Baghdad than we think? Do we have a third world power system in this country, as some have said?
Those are some of the questions we want to address with Mark Bernstein, who is a senior analyst for the Rand Corporation. Before that, he was an energy analyst in the Clinton administration, and he joins us now from Los Angeles, where they're not having any power problems, thankfully, right now.
Mark, thanks for being with us.
I thought all this stuff was supposed to be repaired after 1977. Why wasn't it?
MARK BERNSTEIN, RAND CORP.: Well, we thought a lot of it was, but the transmission system is really complicated and there's a lot we don't understand about how it works and the system is being overloaded, and we haven't made the investments we needed, and we got surprised.
COOPER: You know, it is a very interconnected system, as I think we've all learned in the last 30 or 40 hours, 30 to 31 hours or so.
Is all this interconnectivity a good thing?
BERNSTEIN: Well, sometimes it is. It can help reliability.
But sometimes as we saw in the last couple of days, it is not.
As we get overly interconnected, we lose the ability for individual utilities to maintain their own reliability, and as we depend too much on the whole regional trading issues, sometimes in some cases the reliability suffers.
COOPER: So what do you -- you say we got surprised. We got caught unawares. What is the problem? I mean, everyone by now says we need to modernize the system. You hear that, it's become almost a cliche at this point. What exactly does that mean?
BERNSTEIN: That means a number of things. We do need new transmission lines. We do need to upgrade the system. But those aren't the only things we need to do.
We need to think of our energy system like a portfolio, and we need to diversify that portfolio. We need to reduce demand. We need to take the peak load and reduce it through energy efficiency.
COOPER: Which they did in California.
BERNSTEIN: Which we did in California, after the energy crisis. Peak load was reduced significantly within a short period of time, and that can happen in the Northeast and other parts of the United States...
COOPER: Reducing peak load, that's by just conserving, by regulating air conditions, by building buildings which are more efficient?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. Putting in more efficient air conditioners. Putting in more efficient lights. Changing the thermostats a little bit. Doing things not so people suffer, but being more efficient and more productive in their use of energy.
COOPER: Politically, if this was a power failure, there are a lot of people saying this was a political failure as well. Where does the fault lie, in your opinion? BERNSTEIN: Well, there are a lot of places to put blame, but clearly we need some national attention in terms of an energy policy bill. We need to look at the system. We need the right incentives in place to improve the system, to do more efficiency, to add more generation.
We need the federal government to step up to the plate...
COOPER: Well, let me just stop you there. What exactly does that mean? I mean, you say we need more incentives -- incentives, what, from the federal government to local power companies to modernize, to improve the system?
BERNSTEIN: Not only to the local power companies to improve, but to consumers to reduce energy use, to companies to hedge against the energy uncertainties. For companies to put in their own generation, perhaps, in a building. For people to do more energy efficiency. For the utilities to put in new generation and improve the transmission system.
We have to do it all. If we just do one piece, it isn't going to solve the problem. We really need to focus across all different parts of the electric system and solve the whole problem that way.
COOPER: Do you believe that is actually possible? And do you think there is political will enough to actually do that?
BERNSTEIN: Well, I hope so. There is going to be a lot of talk and a lot of push to create an energy bill, and hopefully Congress can put something out that will work.
COOPER: All right, Mark Bernstein, with Rand Corporation, appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks very much.
BERNSTEIN: Thank you very much.
COOPER: We still have a lot ahead tonight. We want to get a look at what is happening elsewhere in the world. There have been a lot of other stories developing in the last 24 hours or so.
For that, we go to Atlanta and CNN's Erica Hill -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Anderson.
Two hundred and seventy people died, as many know, when a bomb exploded aboard Pan American flight 103. That wreckage fell on Lockerbie, Scotland, and that happened in December of 1988.
Today, nearly 15 years after the fact, the nation of Libya accepted responsibility and offered to compensate the victims, but not without one final glitch, which Elise Labott explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A deal 15 years in the making was held up by the blackout in New York, delaying the submission to the United Nations Security Council by a few hours, a letter from Libya, finally accepting responsibility for the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In the letter, Libya accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials, a Libyan intelligence officer convicted of masterminding the attack, renounces terrorism, and pledges cooperation with the ongoing Lockerbie investigation.
And Libya says it will also transfer $2.7 billion in compensation into an escrow account. That works out to $10 million for each of the 270 victims families. They'll receive $4 million of their share when the U.N. Security Council lifts sanctions against Libya, which could happen early next week.
GLENN JOHNSON, FLIGHT 103 FAMILIES GROUP: Through the efforts of our government, through the efforts of our families putting pressure on the government, we are finally getting a resolution. We're getting some action from the Libyan government, which will show a change in its actions.
LABOTT (voice-over): But victims families were told by Secretary of State Powell Friday Libya will not get a clean bill of health.
Daniel Cohen lost his daughter Theo (ph) in the bombing, and says the settlement does not bring closure for him, it should not for the United States.
DANIEL COHEN, VICTIM'S FATHER: The leader of Libya killed that girl. I don't want to see us makeup with him ever, ever, ever under any circumstances.
LABOTT (on camera): The White House said Friday tough U.S. sanctions against Libya will remain in full force until Libya addresses other U.S. concerns -- Tripoli's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, its human rights record, and what the United States calls "meddling" by President Muammar Qadhafi in other African nations.
Elise Labott, CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: In France, the temperatures are finally coming down, but the anger is rising. The deaths of some 3,000 people in France are blamed on an unprecedented heat wave and critics say the government was on vacation.
CNN's Chris Burns reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a scene repeated by the thousands across France, loved ones paying their last respects.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE), an 83-year-old retired Jewish textile businessman, having survived the horrors of World War II, succumbed to a freak desert-style heat wave in a country ill-equipped for it.
His granddaughter, Audrey, says her family had to keep his body in their apartment for two days against Jewish law. The morgues turned them away.
AUDREY, VICTIM'S GRANDDAUGHTER: No room. No room.
BURNS (on camera): All of them were full?
AUDREY: Yes, full.
BURNS: How do you feel about that?
AUDREY: I think France can be -- can't deal with crisis.
BURNS (voice-over): Refrigerated tents outside Paris house some of the bodies as grave diggers prepare for more funerals. Officials in this Catholic countries even stretched the rules and allowed burials on Friday, ascension day.
For many of those who survived, it's been a desperate struggle to get medical help. August is France's traditional vacation month, and critics also blame budget cutbacks.
FREDERICK TESSIERE, HOSPITAL REP.: I think the government is fully responsible of the fact that he decided to close -- to let a lot of beds close during the summer, because we informed them that we could experience any kind of a catastrophe at any time, but I think they are responsible for not having been able to welcome this huge amount of people.
BURNS: Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to Paris from his Alpine vacation to meet with cabinet members. A week into the heat wave, the government finally declared an emergency on Wednesday, activating it's so-called (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or White Plan, used to tackle national disasters, boosting the number of hospital beds and staff, setting up temporary morgues.
JEAN-FRANCOISE MATTEL, FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): We have a situation that's just about stabilized, and the White Plan has proven itself to those working with it to be effective.
BURNS: Critics say it's all too little too late, that officials were caught with their feet in the water on vacation.
(on camera): For those rightly frolicking in the fountains, the government has setup first aid units here at the Eiffel Tower and at other tourist sites during the heat wave. If only it were that easy to relieve the suffering across the country.
Chris Burns, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Taking a look now at some of the other news around the world, humanitarian aid from the United Nations has reached Liberia. The first ship of the U.N.'s World Food Program docked today in the capital of Monrovia, this after rebel fighters agreed to pull back.
Three other U.N. ships are due next week, and a top al Qaeda leader is in U.S. custody. Federal officials say the man known as Hambali is one of the masterminds behind last years Bali night club bombing and possibly September 11 attacks in the United States.
Investigators believe Hambali's arrest will prevent future attacks.
Bracing for some more rough weather, tropical storm Erika is swirling in the Gulf of Mexico tonight. Weather forecasters predict the storm to hit Brownsville, Texas tomorrow morning. It should hit there as a minimal hurricane.
That's a look at some of the other stories making news tonight. Anderson, I'll turn it back to you in New York.
COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. I wish you were joining me here in Times Square on a Friday night.
HILL: No place else to be on a Friday night.
COOPER: That's exactly right. No place I'd rather be, frankly.
Thanks very much, Erica.
Well, the one thing you could see in the dark, we have that ahead, plenty of smiles.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. We are live in New York Times Square.
It is about 10 of midnight. This is a special two-hour edition of NEWS NIGHT.
It's almost a competitive sport at this point. "Oh, you had a bad blackout story? Mine is much, much worse. Believe me."
People were proud to suffer together through the darkness with a flashlight and a smile, and our local leaders were smiling too while patting us on the back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: The people of New York City and New York state and the people of the Northeast and the Midwest who were effected by last night's blackout kept their calm, were decent to their neighbors, and really showed the rest of the country and the world the true character of the American people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Darkness, darkness, darkness. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he took charge. He led everybody out of the train.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had to crawl through a manhole cover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't showered in two days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We put blankets on the fire escape, and the pillows, and got to see the stars and everything. It was wonderful, sleeping on the -- it was like reliving childhood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no subways, there are no buses, there are no streetcars. There is nothing. Until further notice, we can't do nothing. If you want to use the phone, you have to go outside because there's no phones here. Unfortunately, we're all stuck together, so let's all be happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people of Toronto have once again stepped up to the challenge with the greatest spirit that I've ever seen in any city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been good. They've given us clear information, as much as they can give us, and they provided us with cold drinks. So, I don't know what else they cold do.
BLOOMBERG: I'm happy to report that tonight all 23 Broadway shows are going to be open. The Mets game at Shea Stadium is going to be played tonight. It's been a long time since the Mets were on this kind of a streak, two in a row. Let's home they can make it three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The energy was great, though, because it was -- people weren't panicked, for the most part. It was just like, how are we going to get through this, you know, and just helping each other.
CAMPBELL: Let me tell you that we had close to twice as many police officers in the streets of Cleveland, particularly in our neighborhoods, and last night we had 19 arrests.
On a normal Thursday night, in the summer, we have 50 arrests, so what you can see is that we had more police officers and fewer arrests, which gives you an indication that in fact Cleveland was very calm and that people behaved extremely well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the people of New York, when there's a crisis, New Yorkers do the right thing. In this crisis, in this historic blackout, New Yorkers at every level, from ordinary citizens to political leaders, did the right thing. We're proud of you. Thank you. Let's continue to be vigilant, and let's make sure that this crisis, as with others, is put behind us and we can look to tomorrow and look to the future with great confidence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And welcome back. We are live in New York City's Times Square.
We've attracted quite a crowd in the two hours or so that we've been here and we thought we'd pull in two of the unsuspecting folks to talk with us and find out a little bit about their experience, typical New York experience.
I'm joined right now by Inor Sawyer (ph) and Britney Knuper (ph). You're from San Francisco. You are the aunt of Britney (ph)? Now, you've come to New York to -- you really came at the perfect time, I think. You're visiting, you arrived yesterday morning?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We took the redeye and arrived 6:30 yesterday morning.
COOPER: And you came to look at colleges?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Columbia and NYU.
COOPER: Columbia and NYU. So you take tour of Columbia, and you're thinking this is pretty nice, and then all of the sudden the lights go out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right after the tour. We were about to get on the subway, and everyone was getting evacuated, and we changed our minds.
COOPER: So there you are, like 100-something Street, and you've got to walk all the way back down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 60 blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: 60 blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had checked in to the Park Wayne (ph) Hotel first, 37th floor, beautiful view...
COOPER: Very nice. 37th floor is a nice thing before the blackout. After the blackout...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Suddenly, it becomes like, oh, my God, the 37th floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: Now, I understand you bought new footwear. Is this correct?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was in my nice, new little heels, and...
COOPER: You wanted to make a good impression on your college tour. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I wanted to make a good impression, in case I met professors or admissions officers, and so it was nice for that...
COOPER: So, where'd you pick up these shoes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I've had these for quite a while, and I decided I didn't want to risk having to walk 60 more blocks in heels.
COOPER: And it's been just sort of one calamity after another. This thing happened, then you're stuck in your hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, once we got into the hotel, it was just a sea of bodies sleeping all over the floor and off the luggage carts and everywhere else.
COOPER: Which for some hotels in New York is a normal attraction, but really not the hotel you were going to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This morning they were trying to train us to sit on the furniture again, we're so used to just being on the floor. But about four or five hours into that ordeal, they started taking us up one floor at a time. Anyone for the sixth floor can come in this single elevator run by a generator and go to bed.
So we stared doing that. Unfortunately, we're on the 37th floor. So by the time they got to us, they checked our ID's and our keys and said, OK, and then all of the sudden the elevator broke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They opened the doors, and the man steps out and says, "Can't use the elevator any more. It's broken, but you can take the stairs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can still go up, just on the stairs. He said, "They're lit. There are some lights in the hallway. Don't worry."
And on the 16th flight on our trek up, hundreds of people in the stairwell, the lights went out, so it was pitch black, and it was just, you hear this clomp, clomp, clomp for about an hour.
COOPER: I've got to ask you, do you still want to go to college here in New York?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. Actually, I had a great time.
COOPER: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The staff at the hotel was fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And New Yorkers are really nice. I don't know what people are talking about.
COOPER: Well, tonight you went to see a show, and what show did you see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just as a metaphor for our entire activity, we saw "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
COOPER: Seems to really sum up the entire experience.
How much longer are you here in New York for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until Monday.
COOPER: Until Monday. And have you been before?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, this is my first time.
COOPER: Is it about what you expected?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not quite with the blackout, but yes, it's been really fun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been a very exciting trip. I will say, it's been poignant at times too.
When we were in the restaurant, and we were all sleeping in cubicles, little couches, a 6-year-old came up to us and was very frightened and said to the waiter next to us, said "Are we going to survive"?
It was really poignant. So we can tell that people here have had a lot rougher experience than what we've gone through.
COOPER: But the city is doing pretty well, don't you think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has a great spirit.
COOPER: All right. Inor (ph), it's really great to meet you. Britney (ph), good luck to you. I hope you get to -- if you decide on Columbia, I hope you -- this is where you end up. We don't have these blackouts very often, I just want you to know. It's only every, you know, couple of decades.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that was the assumption.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to bring some more survival tools next time.
COOPER: That would be a good idea. At least some bottled water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
COOPER: Thanks very much -- and some sensible shoes.
All right, coming up next from Times Square, stories from the great blackout of 2003.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to New York's Times Square. We are live in Times Square.
It's almost midnight here. It's getting a little odd. Let's just say I'm not the only guy wearing makeup here right now, if you know what I mean.
Here's an image we saw last night, a guy directing traffic with one hand and holding a beer in the other. That kind of sums it up. One of 50 million stories from the blackout of 2003.
NEWSNIGHT'S Beth Nissen has a few more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stories come in waves. The first wave, stories of how I made it out told breathlessly by people suspended between floors in the pitch black cube of an elevator or trapped in the dank ratty underground between subway stations or stranded 60 long flights up in a skyscraper.
The second wave of stories, a few million versions of how I made it home. In a bit of blackout magic, tens of thousands of city workers were abruptly changed from commuters to pedestrians. Shoe stores across Manhattan sold out of sneakers. A Times Square sporting goods store gave away running shoes and roller blades to people facing a long hike home.
Across miles of baked sidewalks, across the great city bridges, up or across the river to a neighboring state.
Scores of women who began the day fashionably ended it in blistering regret, ruined the design and purchase of toe-crushing spiked heel foot wear.
There were stories of people who helped others get home. Citizens stepped into mid-town intersections to bring order to the anarchy of Manhattan rush hour traffic with no traffic light, which turned out to be only slightly worse than everyday anarchy of Manhattan rush hour traffic.
Drivers who had room in their cars and gas in their tanks opened their doors for stranded commuters who were going their way or close enough. Car owners grid locked on city streets opened their windows and turned up the radio so worried passers by could hear the latest.
Anyone with a small transistor radio grew a small knot of grateful listeners.
The third wave of stories came later, as night fell. These stories were smaller, scenes on a side street or a remark overheard in the dark. Across from Penn Statin, on the vast steps of New York City's main post office, hundreds of stranded travelers and commuters camped out for the night, resting their heads on brief cases and bags, restless on their narrow stone beds. A homeless man passed by. "Welcome to my world," he muttered.
Long after dark, people were still out on the main streets and avenues. They milled around bars that still had ice and beer and good spirits. Outside one bar, a man rescued a woman who dropped her candle, exactly how Adolfo meets Mimi in "La Boheme." The couple talked a while, the start perhaps of another story, the story of how we met.
People stayed out late on side streets too. Folding chairs were brought down to the sidewalk and sometimes an armchair. People talked about how strange it was to have no TV to watch, then they talked about their favorite TV shows.
Many, being New Yorkers, fretted and stressed. How do the mayor and the governor know this wasn't terrorism? How is the babysitter going to get there if the subways aren't running? How long until the refrigerator hummed on and the VCR started blinking 12 and the Empire State Building was lit up again? How long until the story of the great blackout of '03 was over.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: How long indeed. That is our program tonight.
Thanks very much for watching. I'm Anderson Cooper. Good night from Times Square. I've got to try to find a cab home. Good night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 15, 2003 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at our live shot now, here at New York's Times Square. It's a little bit past 11:00 Eastern time on a Friday night in New York. There is no place like Times Square, the lights finally back on, as they are throughout most of the city. A lot of New Yorkers, a lot of visitors, just walking around, happy to have lights, happy to have stores to go into, air conditioning to feel. New York at its finest.
Welcome back to our continuing hour-long edition of NEWS NIGHT.
There have been a lot of stories in this blackout, a lot of people who have improvised their way through the darkness. Today brought relief for a lot of people, but there is still a ways to go in getting back to normal, and a lot of headaches still to endure.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer has a look at the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A round of applause in Times Square for withstanding perhaps the largest power outage in American history.
In much of the northeast and Canada, the lights flickered on. Still, so many images not seen on normal days. Street sleepers, people waiting in line for ice, struggling back to routines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think once the lights go back on, the city is going to be fine. It's New York, it's what we do.
BLITZER: A transit worker in Toronto, delivering the bad news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no subways, there are no buses, there are no streetcars. There is nothing. Until further notice, we can't do nothing. If you want to use the phone, you have to go outside because there's no phones here. Unfortunately, we're all stuck together, so let's all be happy.
BLITZER: Little things helped. Like free sneakers given to people without transportation in New York.
Those who could get around still struggled. This blackout covered an area that's home to some 50 million people. More than 10 million people in New York state alone were without power at some point.
In city after city, officials could not give an exact timetable for full restoration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hearing it could be anywhere from late night to the latter part of the weekend.
BLITZER: Municipalities coped with one problem after another spawned by the massive crisis. At least three deaths related to the blackout.
In New York, dozens of serious fires, several hundred elevator and subway rescues. A record number of emergency medical service calls. A plea from the mayor to conserve energy and think before going back to work.
MARK BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: There are worse things than taking a summer Friday off from work.
BLITZER: Cleveland got much of its power back quickly, but suffered one of its worst ever water crises. All four major pumping stations in the city shutdown. Then restored this morning, but with a caveat.
JANE CAMPBELL, MAYOR OF CLEVELAND: When the water begins to flow, you have to -- for 24 hours you must boil the water 4 minutes.
BLITZER: Detroit officials counted nearly 100 arrests overnight, not a huge number for a city that size. Everywhere, a sense that it could have been worse.
GEORGE PATAKI, FMR. NEW YORK GOVERNOR: We have to have answers to this. It's 2003. We are an energy-dependent society.
BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, getting all the lights back on everywhere may take days. Figuring out exactly what went wrong and fixing the problems will take a whole lot longer than that.
Today, President Bush called the blackout a wakeup call. Question is, who needs to wake up?
Senior White House correspondent John King joins us with more -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That is the question in Washington tonight, Anderson.
The president meant a wakeup call in the sense that he says this massive blackout should give new urgency to the idea of expanding and modernizing the nation's electrical power grid.
But with that policy debate comes already a fierce political debate as well, and calls for several investigations. Democrats say Mr. Bush and Republicans share at least some of the blame, they say supporting energy deregulation and things like that, again in the Democrat's words, the Republicans are beholden to energy interests and did not take steps to prevent things like this.
But Mr. Bush made clear today that he begs to differ. He says updating the electricity grid would already be in progress if Congress had passed energy legislation he submitted more than a year ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Congress needs to complete work on a comprehensive energy plan that among other things will help us modernize our infrastructure around America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, while out in California today, the president spoke by telephone with the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the two leaders agreed to form a joint task force to determine just what caused the blackout. That task force also charged with determining whether any new steps can be taken to prevent that cascading effect that left tens of millions without power.
That will be one of at least three investigations. The House Energy Committee chairman Billy Tauzin says he will launch hearings when Congress comes back from its August recess and the House committee that specializes in Homeland Security says it too will investigate the blackout with an eye on seeing if it exposed vulnerabilities that could be exploited by terrorists.
Look for the Senate to add to the list of investigations and the Department of Homeland Security also will explore whether there are lessons now for the government's war on terrorism. All of that, of course, on top of this policy debate over how to improve the electricity transmission network, and if there's agreement on that, the big question will be, who will pay for it -- Anderson.
COOPER: John, is the White House concerned at all about the effect of this blackout on the upcoming presidential elections? I mean, do they see this as an issue that they have to deal with before it sort of gets into that arena?
KING: They see it as an issue of any crisis tests a leader. Now it is the mayors and the governors who tend to be tested the most because they are the ones where the city is without power, the city is without services.
But because of the scope of this, the president had no choice, and the White House said he was quite eager to acknowledge there's a national problem.
Now, the president says he's been talking about this for sometime. It is true he has been demanding an energy bill for sometime. The president himself has very infrequently emphasized the electricity problem as one of the reasons he wants that electricity bill. Look for his emphasis to change now.
Now question, this debate has political momentum, but it often gets derailed, and most times when the energy debate gets derailed, it is because of issues that have nothing to do with electricity. The big question now will be how does Washington respond. Clearly, lawmakers from all the states effected want quick action. The president says he wants quick action. It's a very difficult issue, never mind all the regional and political differences. There's the money issue, too, Anderson. Very tough.
COOPER: All right, John King, in Washington. John, thanks very much for that tonight.
Well, that was the president's day, as John told you. Now we want to look at what is happening in another city, in Detroit, a city that's been hit hard by the blackout.
We're joined on the phone now by Celeste Headley, a reporter for WDET Detroit Public Radio.
Celeste, thanks very much for being with us tonight.
How bad was it in Detroit from your perspective?
CELESTE HEADLEY, NPR REPORTER: All things considered, things went fairly smoothly. Still, all the same, things are pretty tough for Detroit residents.
The power is still not on in a lot of areas in Detroit. People waited for hours, literally, between two, six, even eight hours, for gasoline to start pumping at some of the gas stations, and people are still having to boil their water as water is not at full capacity.
COOPER: Did you get a sense the city or individual businesses were unprepared?
HEADLEY: To be honest, I thought the city handled it very well.
Businesses were definitely unprepared. It happened so suddenly, nobody was prepared at all. There wasn't enough ice. There weren't enough supplies. The stores ran out of D batteries very, very quickly, and people really didn't know where to go.
Luckily, the city did step in. The National Guard brought in water trucks, and they started distributing all kinds of water and the governor did start bringing in gas.
But on a whole, businesses seemed unprepared. The city handled it fairly well.
COOPER: Were you surprised -- I mean, reporting this story, it was -- it was a difficult thing, I found, in New York, finding out information, getting anywhere. You know, all the things that modern day reporters rely on, you know, especially for television, for radio, cell phones, computers, e-mail, all of that, for at least a while, was not available. Was it tough for you?
HEADLEY: Oh, it was very tough. I really felt like I was back 20, 30 years ago. We didn't have computers, cell phones, our digital records weren't working properly. My son's daycare was closed, so he had to come into the radio station and sit out in the lobby all day long. Getting place to place...
COOPER: I'll bet he loved that.
HEADLEY: A lot of our reporters didn't have gas in their cars, so my car with the full tank of gas was the one that went out all over the city, whether I was driving or not.
It was a pretty rough day for us.
COOPER: You know, I've asked a couple of various mayors and city officials, even a lieutenant governor tonight, whether they have those same kind of problems. I imagine they do. All of them have said we're very pleased with the response of our, you know, police, our fire department, our local authorities.
But from what you saw in Detroit, did you get the sense that -- I mean, is it just news organizations, or it's got to be city government as well.
HEADLEY: Everyone is having trouble. There is no question about that. I mean, there were lines miles long of people waiting new gas stations where they had heard rumors that the gas station either had gas or was going to get gas soon.
Thousands of people showed up to try and get fresh water from the National Guard trucks that were brining in water. It was definitely difficult. It's still difficult.
It's eerie to look out at the city of Detroit right now, where the street lights aren't on in most places and there's no traffic lights, and it's kind of a strange place here in the city, and people are having a hard time.
But it could have been worse...
COOPER: Was your station able -- was your station able to stay on the air?
HEADLEY: It was off the air for a little over an hour this morning.
We do have a diesel-powered generator that we had to get fuel to. There wasn't enough diesel fuel in there. But they brought that in, so we were able to stay on the air for the rest of the day.
Our lights flickered a number of times, even with the generator, and half of the station didn't have computers for quite some time. It was -- we were kind of using stone tablets and chisels there.
COOPER: It was amazing to me -- I was on the streets of New York last night around the same time, around midnight, 1:00 a.m., and, you know, local television, here in New York, they were on the air, broadcasting. Of course, no one in New York could see it. No one could watch CNN here. And really, radio became the most important thing that night. I mean, there was a man on the street corner with a transistor radio, his name was Bob, and I mean, he was the most popular man on that street corner at that time. This is really a story that radio sort shines in.
HEADLEY: That's right, and even in my neighborhood, as I -- the power went out just as I was returning home from work, and I had to get back into my car and get back to the station.
I have a solar-powered radio, and my neighbors were greedily grabbing at it so they could use it while I was gone to the station.
I heard radios on all over the place. People were getting into their cars to turn on their radios because their power was out in their home. So it is a particular time when radio kind of fulfills its special purpose.
COOPER: Yes, it certainly does. Celeste Headley, a reporter at WDET in Detroit. I appreciate you joining us tonight. Still working, keep at it. Thanks very much, Celeste.
Still ahead from Times Square, in New York, we're going to look at some neighborhoods big and small and how they coped when the lights went out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome to our special two-hour edition of NEWS NIGHT live in New York's Times Square. No place better to be on a Friday night.
There seems to be a spirit of cooperation among a lot of those effected by the blackout. The same cannot be said for some authorities here and in Canada, pointing fingers about where the problem actually occurred.
Scott Laurie of CTV has that and a look at how Canadians are dealing with the blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT LAURIE, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... ever has still left millions without power and it sparked a power play between Ontario's premier and the mayor of New York, who says the blackout was made in Canada.
BLOOMBERG: Oh, I don't think there's any question that all the power companies feel very strongly that it happened in Canada. Whether it was somebody that did something wrong or a piece of equipment that failed, or a lightening strike.
LAURIE: Premier Ernie Eves says not so.
ERNIE EVES, ONTARIO PROVINCE PREMIER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which is the northeastern center that is setup to review the entire northeast of the United States and Canada, has concluded this morning that indeed it did happen in the upper Midwest United States, not in the province of Ontario.
LAURIE: The Ontario government still has a state of emergency. It's urging people to stay home and limit electricity use. That means big energy users like factories and office towers are supposed to stay shut. Energy critics say Ontario's reliance on power imports could have made the problem even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were importing about 10 percent of our power in order to make it through a hot day. That makes us a risky partner.
LAURIE: At Canada's busiest airport, delays and no clear timeline for when backlogs will be cleared up.
On the streets, some were worried, like the Napiers (ph), whose son was on life support when power vanished.
MR. NAPIER, BLACKOUT VICTIM: Well, we wee actually quite concerned, because our family member was in an ICU on life support, so we were a little bit concerned greatly, and anyway, in the end, everything was OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, more now from here in New York City.
A sign in a restaurant nearby said this today: "We're open. We have lights, air condition and steaks." One block over, all the stores were dark, empty and locked up.
Today experiencing the blackout was all about where you were at any given moment. The day in New York now from CNN's Richard Roth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The third time was not the charm. New York City's third major power blackout in nearly 40 years turned into the longest and stickiest ever.
PATAKI: Given the safeguards that were supposed to have been put in place after the last systemic failures back in the 60's and 70's, why did the system that was supposed to have the security and the safeguards fail?
ROTH: New Yorkers awoke to find the lights were not back on yet in every home.
Battle-hardened, especially after 9-11, people in Manhattan lined up for a morning jolt of caffeine to handle this latest calamity.
BLOOMBERG: The city that burned in the 1970's when facing similar circumstances is now a very different place -- a city that has the resiliency to conquer adversity, not succumb to it.
ROTH: Thousands slept out for the evening on post office and courthouse steps and in parks. There were few reports of any looting, though more fires were started because of misuse of candles. But restoration of power took time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We managed to miss the Broadway show last night. We were all booked in, and the guys were due to go to the game here tonight, but they've actually just been told that that's been postponed till Sunday. Our flight's due to go back to the U.K. tomorrow evening, so we're not going to be around for that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I walked from my office, like 30 blocks, up to a friend's place, stayed there. I'm wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
ROTH: Transportation was clobbered. Amtrak and commuter rail lines canceled trains. The New York City subway remains shutdown.
Some airlines told passengers they were flying, but passengers at LaGuardia Airport went nowhere. Many finally managed to get off of Manhattan Island on Friday, some by bus or ferry to New Jersey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, I have no cash, so haven't got enough money to get to the airport. So, I missed my flight when I was trying to get cash.
ROTH: The blackout cost businesses. Those selling food had lost the juice.
When it came to electricity in New York, it was location, location, location. On 9th Avenue, women were getting their nails done in this salon while the store next door was closed.
The blackout slammed shut automatic bank machines and caused long lines for gasoline.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: The utility company says it's providing now 100 percent power to all customers.
There are still, though, Anderson, some scattered outages. Here on 8th Avenue in New York City outside Pennsylvania Station, it's bustling as always, except there aren't as many trains. But people's frustrations have certainly eased. But a lot of worry for the end of the summer -- can this happen again.
And one other related blackout note, important on the diplomatic circle and also for criminal circles. Libya, in fully accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, it's letter acknowledging this was delayed by the power outages, blackouts at the U.N. and on New York's East Side.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: All right, Richard Roth, live in New York. Thanks very much, Richard.
Now, you hear the phrase blackout in New York, and many of us think about the Summer of Sam. Do you remember that? That scary summer, 1977, with the blackout there was a bonanza of crime and mayhem.
Today we learned that the New York of 2003 is not the New York it was in '77.
That story from CNN's Maria Hinojosa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The blackout of 2003 versus the blackout of 1977. It's the tale of two different New York Cities, one a nightmare of violence, the other post-September 11 patience and community spirit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was nice. Nobody (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and that was the nice thing about it.
HINOJOSA: Marie and her son, Sean, spent Thursday night hanging out with neighbors in Harlem's Morningside Park, the place she avoided 26 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: in '77, I mean, it was like everybody panicked. To me, the environment that I was in, everybody panicked. They didn't know what to do. You know what I'm saying. But this year, last night, everybody pulled together. It was like, almost as if we knew this was going to happen, because it was real calm.
HINOJOSA: That calmness was still resonating with some New Yorkers.
Minnie Schneider (ph) and Lex Dunbar (ph) were catching a bite at an uptown pizza place. They said this blackout was all about the community vibe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that I hadn't -- that I had seen in passing in my apartment building for years, I didn't know them, "Hey, how you doing," and finally got to know their names and got to know them and we kind of had a little giggle about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew that was going to be the ultimate test, because if we really were going to be united, then I realized, you know, we came through, and everything is fine.
HINOJOSA: Nothing at all like 1977, when desolation and destruction reigned. This time around, Harlem's 125th Street was intact, no violence, no broken windows.
Ron Garrett (ph), who's been a barber for 15 years, was expecting the worse, but it didn't happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were very attentive to each other. You know, they were more caring. New Yorkers always come together when a tragedy happens. Sort of like 9-11, everybody was more together and stuff like that.
HINOJOSA: For these uptown kids, no electricity mean no distractions. (on camera): What was different about being with your family last night than usual?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spending more time with them, extra quality time.
HINOJOSA: Extra quality time? Why? Because no TV? You had to talk to each other. Any hugging going on. A little?
(voice-over): The day after, life was pretty much back to normal. There were baseball games, family outings, and lots of relaxation in the park and bustling shoppers roaming the streets of Harlem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm proud to be in New York now, because they can't say what they used to say about New York. We stuck together.
HINOJOSA (on camera): Everybody pulled together?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody pulled together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA: Pulling together might just be the catch phrase of the blackout of 2003, Anderson.
People expected the worst, but in a lot of ways, New Yorkers are feeling that their city is stronger and more resilient than ever.
COOPER: Proud to be a New Yorker, as that man said.
You talked about expectations. Is this the story you expected to find?
HINOJOSA: No, not at all. When I set out this morning, just having conversations with people, I wasn't sure what to expect.
And then this guy kind of said, you know, everybody came out to the park. People were having picnics. Everybody was hanging out, feeling family. And then he said, "You know what, I wish that there was an annual blackout day in New York City so that everybody could get together and just talk. No computers. No television. Just talk."
COOPER: That's interesting. I was on the Upper East Side last night, doing some live shots around midnight, and a lot of the restaurants had sort of opened up their tables, moved couches out onto the street, put out candles, and were serving beer, and people were just -- it was a party, wherever you were.
HINOJOSA: As soon as people kind of realized that it wasn't about terrorism, it was like, let's just have a good time. And thank everybody that we're here and we're alive and we're okay. No electricity, we can handle that. Just like that. It was great.
COOPER: Great story, Maria Hinojosa. Thanks very much. HINOJOSA: Good to be here.
COOPER: All right. Still a lot ahead tonight.
Next, from here in New York, a blackout? You call this a blackout? We'll take you to a place that knows something about blackouts.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back.
We are live in New York City's Times Square.
We've been hearing pretty much nothing but good stories over the last several hours, stories of good cheer over the last day, how people from Ottawa to Oyster Bay have been pulling together, taking the blackout in stride.
Well, now, multiply that by day after day for, say, oh, maybe four or five months -- no end in sight -- and you know what the people of Baghdad are dealing with.
CNN's Rym Brahimi did not find much sympathy there for us today. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was predictable. In the streets of Baghdad, there's not much sympathy for New Yorkers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I hope they can finally feel what we've been going through.
BRAHIMI: Store owner Abu Tiva (ph) says while New Yorkers count the number of hours without electricity, he's counting the number of hours he has electricity and the number is four. He only has electricity four hours a day, and he says that's bad for business.
In New York, they're working to restore electricity in days. Here, coalition authorities have promised electricity would return to its pre-war level next month, saying sabotage of power lines has delayed work on this country's electricity grids.
But Iraqis complain the United States isn't doing enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Those who brought fleets and an army and tanks to this country can't provide me with power? If they wanted to, they could do it in a matter of hours.
BRAHIMI: New Yorkers are coping with temperatures in the 90's. In Baghdad, temperatures can soar up to 55 degrees Celsius, or 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
To cope, Iraqis can buy ice on the street, or for the wealthier, generators.
These men have found brief respite in an air cooler, 1960's version, that they've linked to a generator in the neighborhood, but says this man, what New Yorkers are experiencing is nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Let them be patient, like us. We've been patient for 13 years. They have the sea, their weather is nicer, and there are other states they can go to where it's cooler.
BRAHIMI: Others see this as a punishment from above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Anything bad that happens to those who have hurt good people is a punishment from God.
BRAHIMI: Any advice to New Yorkers, we asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I say jokingly, let them link up a power strip to ours and we can send them some power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What can I tell them? Let each one hold a fan and start fanning, or let them go swim.
BRAHIMI (on camera): There may not be that many swimming pools in Baghdad, but there's the Tigris River, and Iraqis are advising New Yorkers to do what they do, head for the river and cool down.
Rym Brahimi, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: All right. Well, more on the blackout ahead. Next, we'll check some of the day's other top stories. Live, from Times Square, this is CNN.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back.
Live in New York City's Times Square, it's just about 11:36 or so, 11:37, here in New York on a Friday night in Times Square. It's getting late.
You just saw Rym Brahimi's piece from Iraq. It begs the question, do we have more in common with the folks in Baghdad than we think? Do we have a third world power system in this country, as some have said?
Those are some of the questions we want to address with Mark Bernstein, who is a senior analyst for the Rand Corporation. Before that, he was an energy analyst in the Clinton administration, and he joins us now from Los Angeles, where they're not having any power problems, thankfully, right now.
Mark, thanks for being with us.
I thought all this stuff was supposed to be repaired after 1977. Why wasn't it?
MARK BERNSTEIN, RAND CORP.: Well, we thought a lot of it was, but the transmission system is really complicated and there's a lot we don't understand about how it works and the system is being overloaded, and we haven't made the investments we needed, and we got surprised.
COOPER: You know, it is a very interconnected system, as I think we've all learned in the last 30 or 40 hours, 30 to 31 hours or so.
Is all this interconnectivity a good thing?
BERNSTEIN: Well, sometimes it is. It can help reliability.
But sometimes as we saw in the last couple of days, it is not.
As we get overly interconnected, we lose the ability for individual utilities to maintain their own reliability, and as we depend too much on the whole regional trading issues, sometimes in some cases the reliability suffers.
COOPER: So what do you -- you say we got surprised. We got caught unawares. What is the problem? I mean, everyone by now says we need to modernize the system. You hear that, it's become almost a cliche at this point. What exactly does that mean?
BERNSTEIN: That means a number of things. We do need new transmission lines. We do need to upgrade the system. But those aren't the only things we need to do.
We need to think of our energy system like a portfolio, and we need to diversify that portfolio. We need to reduce demand. We need to take the peak load and reduce it through energy efficiency.
COOPER: Which they did in California.
BERNSTEIN: Which we did in California, after the energy crisis. Peak load was reduced significantly within a short period of time, and that can happen in the Northeast and other parts of the United States...
COOPER: Reducing peak load, that's by just conserving, by regulating air conditions, by building buildings which are more efficient?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. Putting in more efficient air conditioners. Putting in more efficient lights. Changing the thermostats a little bit. Doing things not so people suffer, but being more efficient and more productive in their use of energy.
COOPER: Politically, if this was a power failure, there are a lot of people saying this was a political failure as well. Where does the fault lie, in your opinion? BERNSTEIN: Well, there are a lot of places to put blame, but clearly we need some national attention in terms of an energy policy bill. We need to look at the system. We need the right incentives in place to improve the system, to do more efficiency, to add more generation.
We need the federal government to step up to the plate...
COOPER: Well, let me just stop you there. What exactly does that mean? I mean, you say we need more incentives -- incentives, what, from the federal government to local power companies to modernize, to improve the system?
BERNSTEIN: Not only to the local power companies to improve, but to consumers to reduce energy use, to companies to hedge against the energy uncertainties. For companies to put in their own generation, perhaps, in a building. For people to do more energy efficiency. For the utilities to put in new generation and improve the transmission system.
We have to do it all. If we just do one piece, it isn't going to solve the problem. We really need to focus across all different parts of the electric system and solve the whole problem that way.
COOPER: Do you believe that is actually possible? And do you think there is political will enough to actually do that?
BERNSTEIN: Well, I hope so. There is going to be a lot of talk and a lot of push to create an energy bill, and hopefully Congress can put something out that will work.
COOPER: All right, Mark Bernstein, with Rand Corporation, appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks very much.
BERNSTEIN: Thank you very much.
COOPER: We still have a lot ahead tonight. We want to get a look at what is happening elsewhere in the world. There have been a lot of other stories developing in the last 24 hours or so.
For that, we go to Atlanta and CNN's Erica Hill -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Anderson.
Two hundred and seventy people died, as many know, when a bomb exploded aboard Pan American flight 103. That wreckage fell on Lockerbie, Scotland, and that happened in December of 1988.
Today, nearly 15 years after the fact, the nation of Libya accepted responsibility and offered to compensate the victims, but not without one final glitch, which Elise Labott explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A deal 15 years in the making was held up by the blackout in New York, delaying the submission to the United Nations Security Council by a few hours, a letter from Libya, finally accepting responsibility for the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In the letter, Libya accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials, a Libyan intelligence officer convicted of masterminding the attack, renounces terrorism, and pledges cooperation with the ongoing Lockerbie investigation.
And Libya says it will also transfer $2.7 billion in compensation into an escrow account. That works out to $10 million for each of the 270 victims families. They'll receive $4 million of their share when the U.N. Security Council lifts sanctions against Libya, which could happen early next week.
GLENN JOHNSON, FLIGHT 103 FAMILIES GROUP: Through the efforts of our government, through the efforts of our families putting pressure on the government, we are finally getting a resolution. We're getting some action from the Libyan government, which will show a change in its actions.
LABOTT (voice-over): But victims families were told by Secretary of State Powell Friday Libya will not get a clean bill of health.
Daniel Cohen lost his daughter Theo (ph) in the bombing, and says the settlement does not bring closure for him, it should not for the United States.
DANIEL COHEN, VICTIM'S FATHER: The leader of Libya killed that girl. I don't want to see us makeup with him ever, ever, ever under any circumstances.
LABOTT (on camera): The White House said Friday tough U.S. sanctions against Libya will remain in full force until Libya addresses other U.S. concerns -- Tripoli's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, its human rights record, and what the United States calls "meddling" by President Muammar Qadhafi in other African nations.
Elise Labott, CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: In France, the temperatures are finally coming down, but the anger is rising. The deaths of some 3,000 people in France are blamed on an unprecedented heat wave and critics say the government was on vacation.
CNN's Chris Burns reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a scene repeated by the thousands across France, loved ones paying their last respects.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE), an 83-year-old retired Jewish textile businessman, having survived the horrors of World War II, succumbed to a freak desert-style heat wave in a country ill-equipped for it.
His granddaughter, Audrey, says her family had to keep his body in their apartment for two days against Jewish law. The morgues turned them away.
AUDREY, VICTIM'S GRANDDAUGHTER: No room. No room.
BURNS (on camera): All of them were full?
AUDREY: Yes, full.
BURNS: How do you feel about that?
AUDREY: I think France can be -- can't deal with crisis.
BURNS (voice-over): Refrigerated tents outside Paris house some of the bodies as grave diggers prepare for more funerals. Officials in this Catholic countries even stretched the rules and allowed burials on Friday, ascension day.
For many of those who survived, it's been a desperate struggle to get medical help. August is France's traditional vacation month, and critics also blame budget cutbacks.
FREDERICK TESSIERE, HOSPITAL REP.: I think the government is fully responsible of the fact that he decided to close -- to let a lot of beds close during the summer, because we informed them that we could experience any kind of a catastrophe at any time, but I think they are responsible for not having been able to welcome this huge amount of people.
BURNS: Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to Paris from his Alpine vacation to meet with cabinet members. A week into the heat wave, the government finally declared an emergency on Wednesday, activating it's so-called (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or White Plan, used to tackle national disasters, boosting the number of hospital beds and staff, setting up temporary morgues.
JEAN-FRANCOISE MATTEL, FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): We have a situation that's just about stabilized, and the White Plan has proven itself to those working with it to be effective.
BURNS: Critics say it's all too little too late, that officials were caught with their feet in the water on vacation.
(on camera): For those rightly frolicking in the fountains, the government has setup first aid units here at the Eiffel Tower and at other tourist sites during the heat wave. If only it were that easy to relieve the suffering across the country.
Chris Burns, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Taking a look now at some of the other news around the world, humanitarian aid from the United Nations has reached Liberia. The first ship of the U.N.'s World Food Program docked today in the capital of Monrovia, this after rebel fighters agreed to pull back.
Three other U.N. ships are due next week, and a top al Qaeda leader is in U.S. custody. Federal officials say the man known as Hambali is one of the masterminds behind last years Bali night club bombing and possibly September 11 attacks in the United States.
Investigators believe Hambali's arrest will prevent future attacks.
Bracing for some more rough weather, tropical storm Erika is swirling in the Gulf of Mexico tonight. Weather forecasters predict the storm to hit Brownsville, Texas tomorrow morning. It should hit there as a minimal hurricane.
That's a look at some of the other stories making news tonight. Anderson, I'll turn it back to you in New York.
COOPER: Erica, thanks very much. I wish you were joining me here in Times Square on a Friday night.
HILL: No place else to be on a Friday night.
COOPER: That's exactly right. No place I'd rather be, frankly.
Thanks very much, Erica.
Well, the one thing you could see in the dark, we have that ahead, plenty of smiles.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. We are live in New York Times Square.
It is about 10 of midnight. This is a special two-hour edition of NEWS NIGHT.
It's almost a competitive sport at this point. "Oh, you had a bad blackout story? Mine is much, much worse. Believe me."
People were proud to suffer together through the darkness with a flashlight and a smile, and our local leaders were smiling too while patting us on the back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: The people of New York City and New York state and the people of the Northeast and the Midwest who were effected by last night's blackout kept their calm, were decent to their neighbors, and really showed the rest of the country and the world the true character of the American people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Darkness, darkness, darkness. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he took charge. He led everybody out of the train.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had to crawl through a manhole cover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't showered in two days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We put blankets on the fire escape, and the pillows, and got to see the stars and everything. It was wonderful, sleeping on the -- it was like reliving childhood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no subways, there are no buses, there are no streetcars. There is nothing. Until further notice, we can't do nothing. If you want to use the phone, you have to go outside because there's no phones here. Unfortunately, we're all stuck together, so let's all be happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people of Toronto have once again stepped up to the challenge with the greatest spirit that I've ever seen in any city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been good. They've given us clear information, as much as they can give us, and they provided us with cold drinks. So, I don't know what else they cold do.
BLOOMBERG: I'm happy to report that tonight all 23 Broadway shows are going to be open. The Mets game at Shea Stadium is going to be played tonight. It's been a long time since the Mets were on this kind of a streak, two in a row. Let's home they can make it three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The energy was great, though, because it was -- people weren't panicked, for the most part. It was just like, how are we going to get through this, you know, and just helping each other.
CAMPBELL: Let me tell you that we had close to twice as many police officers in the streets of Cleveland, particularly in our neighborhoods, and last night we had 19 arrests.
On a normal Thursday night, in the summer, we have 50 arrests, so what you can see is that we had more police officers and fewer arrests, which gives you an indication that in fact Cleveland was very calm and that people behaved extremely well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the people of New York, when there's a crisis, New Yorkers do the right thing. In this crisis, in this historic blackout, New Yorkers at every level, from ordinary citizens to political leaders, did the right thing. We're proud of you. Thank you. Let's continue to be vigilant, and let's make sure that this crisis, as with others, is put behind us and we can look to tomorrow and look to the future with great confidence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And welcome back. We are live in New York City's Times Square.
We've attracted quite a crowd in the two hours or so that we've been here and we thought we'd pull in two of the unsuspecting folks to talk with us and find out a little bit about their experience, typical New York experience.
I'm joined right now by Inor Sawyer (ph) and Britney Knuper (ph). You're from San Francisco. You are the aunt of Britney (ph)? Now, you've come to New York to -- you really came at the perfect time, I think. You're visiting, you arrived yesterday morning?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We took the redeye and arrived 6:30 yesterday morning.
COOPER: And you came to look at colleges?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Columbia and NYU.
COOPER: Columbia and NYU. So you take tour of Columbia, and you're thinking this is pretty nice, and then all of the sudden the lights go out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right after the tour. We were about to get on the subway, and everyone was getting evacuated, and we changed our minds.
COOPER: So there you are, like 100-something Street, and you've got to walk all the way back down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 60 blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: 60 blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had checked in to the Park Wayne (ph) Hotel first, 37th floor, beautiful view...
COOPER: Very nice. 37th floor is a nice thing before the blackout. After the blackout...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Suddenly, it becomes like, oh, my God, the 37th floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
COOPER: Now, I understand you bought new footwear. Is this correct?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was in my nice, new little heels, and...
COOPER: You wanted to make a good impression on your college tour. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I wanted to make a good impression, in case I met professors or admissions officers, and so it was nice for that...
COOPER: So, where'd you pick up these shoes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I've had these for quite a while, and I decided I didn't want to risk having to walk 60 more blocks in heels.
COOPER: And it's been just sort of one calamity after another. This thing happened, then you're stuck in your hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, once we got into the hotel, it was just a sea of bodies sleeping all over the floor and off the luggage carts and everywhere else.
COOPER: Which for some hotels in New York is a normal attraction, but really not the hotel you were going to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This morning they were trying to train us to sit on the furniture again, we're so used to just being on the floor. But about four or five hours into that ordeal, they started taking us up one floor at a time. Anyone for the sixth floor can come in this single elevator run by a generator and go to bed.
So we stared doing that. Unfortunately, we're on the 37th floor. So by the time they got to us, they checked our ID's and our keys and said, OK, and then all of the sudden the elevator broke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They opened the doors, and the man steps out and says, "Can't use the elevator any more. It's broken, but you can take the stairs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can still go up, just on the stairs. He said, "They're lit. There are some lights in the hallway. Don't worry."
And on the 16th flight on our trek up, hundreds of people in the stairwell, the lights went out, so it was pitch black, and it was just, you hear this clomp, clomp, clomp for about an hour.
COOPER: I've got to ask you, do you still want to go to college here in New York?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. Actually, I had a great time.
COOPER: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The staff at the hotel was fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And New Yorkers are really nice. I don't know what people are talking about.
COOPER: Well, tonight you went to see a show, and what show did you see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just as a metaphor for our entire activity, we saw "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
COOPER: Seems to really sum up the entire experience.
How much longer are you here in New York for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until Monday.
COOPER: Until Monday. And have you been before?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, this is my first time.
COOPER: Is it about what you expected?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not quite with the blackout, but yes, it's been really fun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been a very exciting trip. I will say, it's been poignant at times too.
When we were in the restaurant, and we were all sleeping in cubicles, little couches, a 6-year-old came up to us and was very frightened and said to the waiter next to us, said "Are we going to survive"?
It was really poignant. So we can tell that people here have had a lot rougher experience than what we've gone through.
COOPER: But the city is doing pretty well, don't you think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has a great spirit.
COOPER: All right. Inor (ph), it's really great to meet you. Britney (ph), good luck to you. I hope you get to -- if you decide on Columbia, I hope you -- this is where you end up. We don't have these blackouts very often, I just want you to know. It's only every, you know, couple of decades.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that was the assumption.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to bring some more survival tools next time.
COOPER: That would be a good idea. At least some bottled water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
COOPER: Thanks very much -- and some sensible shoes.
All right, coming up next from Times Square, stories from the great blackout of 2003.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to New York's Times Square. We are live in Times Square.
It's almost midnight here. It's getting a little odd. Let's just say I'm not the only guy wearing makeup here right now, if you know what I mean.
Here's an image we saw last night, a guy directing traffic with one hand and holding a beer in the other. That kind of sums it up. One of 50 million stories from the blackout of 2003.
NEWSNIGHT'S Beth Nissen has a few more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stories come in waves. The first wave, stories of how I made it out told breathlessly by people suspended between floors in the pitch black cube of an elevator or trapped in the dank ratty underground between subway stations or stranded 60 long flights up in a skyscraper.
The second wave of stories, a few million versions of how I made it home. In a bit of blackout magic, tens of thousands of city workers were abruptly changed from commuters to pedestrians. Shoe stores across Manhattan sold out of sneakers. A Times Square sporting goods store gave away running shoes and roller blades to people facing a long hike home.
Across miles of baked sidewalks, across the great city bridges, up or across the river to a neighboring state.
Scores of women who began the day fashionably ended it in blistering regret, ruined the design and purchase of toe-crushing spiked heel foot wear.
There were stories of people who helped others get home. Citizens stepped into mid-town intersections to bring order to the anarchy of Manhattan rush hour traffic with no traffic light, which turned out to be only slightly worse than everyday anarchy of Manhattan rush hour traffic.
Drivers who had room in their cars and gas in their tanks opened their doors for stranded commuters who were going their way or close enough. Car owners grid locked on city streets opened their windows and turned up the radio so worried passers by could hear the latest.
Anyone with a small transistor radio grew a small knot of grateful listeners.
The third wave of stories came later, as night fell. These stories were smaller, scenes on a side street or a remark overheard in the dark. Across from Penn Statin, on the vast steps of New York City's main post office, hundreds of stranded travelers and commuters camped out for the night, resting their heads on brief cases and bags, restless on their narrow stone beds. A homeless man passed by. "Welcome to my world," he muttered.
Long after dark, people were still out on the main streets and avenues. They milled around bars that still had ice and beer and good spirits. Outside one bar, a man rescued a woman who dropped her candle, exactly how Adolfo meets Mimi in "La Boheme." The couple talked a while, the start perhaps of another story, the story of how we met.
People stayed out late on side streets too. Folding chairs were brought down to the sidewalk and sometimes an armchair. People talked about how strange it was to have no TV to watch, then they talked about their favorite TV shows.
Many, being New Yorkers, fretted and stressed. How do the mayor and the governor know this wasn't terrorism? How is the babysitter going to get there if the subways aren't running? How long until the refrigerator hummed on and the VCR started blinking 12 and the Empire State Building was lit up again? How long until the story of the great blackout of '03 was over.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: How long indeed. That is our program tonight.
Thanks very much for watching. I'm Anderson Cooper. Good night from Times Square. I've got to try to find a cab home. Good night.
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