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CNN Live Saturday
Officials Still Baffled At Why Crisis Started In Ohio
Aired August 16, 2003 - 16:01 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.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators say the problem apparently started in Ohio. Just exactly what happened there that likely triggered a historic chain of events? Well, CNN's Jason Carroll continues with that investigation. He joins us live from Times Square in New York with more. Hello.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well hello to you Christi. Government officials saying this afternoon that what happened on Thursday could happen again if energy officials can't get to the bottom of exactly why it happened.
Now they have made some progress in terms of the investigation. They have figured out, at least, where the problem started. But unfortunately at this point, they still can't determine why it started. They have traced the problem to three transmission lines in Ohio. At this point, they still can't say those if lines failed because of human error or because of some sort of technical error.
Also, investigators can't say why that then triggered a massive failure along something called the Eerie loop. I'm sure a lot of people have heard about this, this is the power grid which runs across several states and portions of Canada. Officials say, at one point, heavy surges of power started flowing in the wrong direction, counter clockwise and then that caused that cascading effect that we say, that generator plants started to shut down apparently before anyone could stop them.
A computerized system was put into place to prevent something like that from happening. Energy officials at this point though can't say why that system failed. Government officials want some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
GOV. GEORGE PATAKI, NEW YORK: On Monday, millions of New Yorkers are going to set foot back into the subways of New York. We know that our system will be up and running, but we cannot say with 100 percent certainty that this can't happen again until we know what happened and what steps are being taken to prevent it again.
GOV. JIM MCGREEVEY, NEW JERSEY: We have the most powerful economy in the world, yet considering the fragility of our energy infrastructure, this is a time to recognize the importance of R&D investment. When we reflect that much of the R&D, much of the technology within our energy grid is 30, 40, in certain remote cases, 50 years old, you simply cannot have an Internet economy based upon edsel technology.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
CARROLL: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham also warned of the possibility of rolling blackouts that could take place over the next few days as the governments try to bring the power systems back online. They're asking people to converse power as much as possible over the next few days to prevent that from happening.
In terms of what's happening here in the state of New York, right here in Time Square, the governor says that power at this point is virtually at 100 percent, although New York state is still under a state of emergency. The subways and the trains are running again. As you can see, most of the businesses are back open, trying to recoupe loses made over the past few days.
New Yorkers themselves, well throughout this entire ordeal, they've basically been taking this in stride, some of us, me for one, didn't get power until last night at about 9:30. I was standing out in the street when it happened, trying to stay cool, because as you know Christi, many of these high rises turn into ovens when you don't have power there.
When the power went on at 9:30, everyone screamed and started hugging each other. At one point I said, who is doing the screaming and realized, I was one of the people doing the screaming because I was so excited to get inside and get life back on track -- Christi.
PAUL: Well, that's good to know. We're glad to know you're comfortable and we appreciate the report, Jason, thank you very much.
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 16, 2003 - 16:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators say the problem apparently started in Ohio. Just exactly what happened there that likely triggered a historic chain of events? Well, CNN's Jason Carroll continues with that investigation. He joins us live from Times Square in New York with more. Hello.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well hello to you Christi. Government officials saying this afternoon that what happened on Thursday could happen again if energy officials can't get to the bottom of exactly why it happened.
Now they have made some progress in terms of the investigation. They have figured out, at least, where the problem started. But unfortunately at this point, they still can't determine why it started. They have traced the problem to three transmission lines in Ohio. At this point, they still can't say those if lines failed because of human error or because of some sort of technical error.
Also, investigators can't say why that then triggered a massive failure along something called the Eerie loop. I'm sure a lot of people have heard about this, this is the power grid which runs across several states and portions of Canada. Officials say, at one point, heavy surges of power started flowing in the wrong direction, counter clockwise and then that caused that cascading effect that we say, that generator plants started to shut down apparently before anyone could stop them.
A computerized system was put into place to prevent something like that from happening. Energy officials at this point though can't say why that system failed. Government officials want some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
GOV. GEORGE PATAKI, NEW YORK: On Monday, millions of New Yorkers are going to set foot back into the subways of New York. We know that our system will be up and running, but we cannot say with 100 percent certainty that this can't happen again until we know what happened and what steps are being taken to prevent it again.
GOV. JIM MCGREEVEY, NEW JERSEY: We have the most powerful economy in the world, yet considering the fragility of our energy infrastructure, this is a time to recognize the importance of R&D investment. When we reflect that much of the R&D, much of the technology within our energy grid is 30, 40, in certain remote cases, 50 years old, you simply cannot have an Internet economy based upon edsel technology.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
CARROLL: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham also warned of the possibility of rolling blackouts that could take place over the next few days as the governments try to bring the power systems back online. They're asking people to converse power as much as possible over the next few days to prevent that from happening.
In terms of what's happening here in the state of New York, right here in Time Square, the governor says that power at this point is virtually at 100 percent, although New York state is still under a state of emergency. The subways and the trains are running again. As you can see, most of the businesses are back open, trying to recoupe loses made over the past few days.
New Yorkers themselves, well throughout this entire ordeal, they've basically been taking this in stride, some of us, me for one, didn't get power until last night at about 9:30. I was standing out in the street when it happened, trying to stay cool, because as you know Christi, many of these high rises turn into ovens when you don't have power there.
When the power went on at 9:30, everyone screamed and started hugging each other. At one point I said, who is doing the screaming and realized, I was one of the people doing the screaming because I was so excited to get inside and get life back on track -- Christi.
PAUL: Well, that's good to know. We're glad to know you're comfortable and we appreciate the report, Jason, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
