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CNN Live Saturday
Michigan State Fair Ready Just In Case
Aired August 16, 2003 - 12:06 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.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm says the lights are in mid -- in Motown, rather, but it's been a long two days. The Detroit area is, of course, home to the automobile industry, which has been having a hard time building cars without power. Just as the new model year vehicles to roll out. CNN's Lisa Leiter is in the Motor City -- Lisa.
LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, that's right. Well, once power started to come back on in this area, workers that work for the various auto companies in the area started to get word as to whether they should report for their shifts on the radio and those reports still coming in this morning. Some workers are being asked to report to work today, others not. Some Ford plants still closed in the -- some of the auto companies have said that they will be running overtime to make up for lost production.
But, we're standing, right now, at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, here in downtown Detroit, and they were ready this morning to have generators in order to power the rides, here, the water slides, at the state fair. But, power is back on today and that's a good sign and people are showing up for the fair. The marching bands were playing earlier. And, all seems pretty normal here, so far. All 2.1 million customers around the Detroit area can turn their lights on this morning and while there is power in the area, some areas are still without water, this morning. And, it will take a little while before those customers are fully restored, because while all pumping stations are working, the pipes need to be filled up and there needs to be enough pressure to build before water service can be restored to the entire area. Detroit's mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, this morning begging residents to only use what they need, whether it's air conditioning or water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK, DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Conserve water. Please turn off your sprinkle systems. Please turn off your timers on the sprinkler system. When the water came up this morning, through our neighborhood in the city of Detroit, you saw sprinkler systems going. We need to conserve water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEITER: Like in Cleveland, residents in the Detroit area are being asked to boil water for now, and that's an advisory that could be in place as long as until Wednesday, so it's really being a tough thing for businesses in the area. This morning we were at a diner outside Detroit where they couldn't serve orange juice, coffee or tea at breakfast this morning, they went to the local grocery store buying coke and diet coke and serving that to their customers, and they're boiling water even to wash dishes here, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, Lisa, there at the fairgrounds it looks like an awful lot of folks have able to get out, considering the fact that so many were kind of stalled because the gas pumps weren't working without power. What's the situation there, now?
LEITER: Well, many of the gas stations in the Detroit area now have power again, so they can start pumping gas, but the question is -- will they have gas to be able to pump? There were some stations that had to close down because they weren't able to have their deliveries. But, the lines seemed to be much longer yesterday, as far as we could tell driving around this morning, all looked normal at the gas stations. I guess the question the question at this point becomes: How high gas prices get? We saw yesterday that prices rose at 10 -- up 10 cents at one station and there were other reports that people were paying -- you know, 10, 20 cents higher than the normal price for gas, so the question is whether there might be some people trying to take advantage of this situation, and whether there were any supply issues that might cause prices to rise in the Midwest as you know, has already seen some price increases over the past couple of weeks.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's hope that's not the case. Thanks very much, Lisa Leiter.
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 - 12:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm says the lights are in mid -- in Motown, rather, but it's been a long two days. The Detroit area is, of course, home to the automobile industry, which has been having a hard time building cars without power. Just as the new model year vehicles to roll out. CNN's Lisa Leiter is in the Motor City -- Lisa.
LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, that's right. Well, once power started to come back on in this area, workers that work for the various auto companies in the area started to get word as to whether they should report for their shifts on the radio and those reports still coming in this morning. Some workers are being asked to report to work today, others not. Some Ford plants still closed in the -- some of the auto companies have said that they will be running overtime to make up for lost production.
But, we're standing, right now, at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, here in downtown Detroit, and they were ready this morning to have generators in order to power the rides, here, the water slides, at the state fair. But, power is back on today and that's a good sign and people are showing up for the fair. The marching bands were playing earlier. And, all seems pretty normal here, so far. All 2.1 million customers around the Detroit area can turn their lights on this morning and while there is power in the area, some areas are still without water, this morning. And, it will take a little while before those customers are fully restored, because while all pumping stations are working, the pipes need to be filled up and there needs to be enough pressure to build before water service can be restored to the entire area. Detroit's mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, this morning begging residents to only use what they need, whether it's air conditioning or water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK, DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Conserve water. Please turn off your sprinkle systems. Please turn off your timers on the sprinkler system. When the water came up this morning, through our neighborhood in the city of Detroit, you saw sprinkler systems going. We need to conserve water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEITER: Like in Cleveland, residents in the Detroit area are being asked to boil water for now, and that's an advisory that could be in place as long as until Wednesday, so it's really being a tough thing for businesses in the area. This morning we were at a diner outside Detroit where they couldn't serve orange juice, coffee or tea at breakfast this morning, they went to the local grocery store buying coke and diet coke and serving that to their customers, and they're boiling water even to wash dishes here, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, Lisa, there at the fairgrounds it looks like an awful lot of folks have able to get out, considering the fact that so many were kind of stalled because the gas pumps weren't working without power. What's the situation there, now?
LEITER: Well, many of the gas stations in the Detroit area now have power again, so they can start pumping gas, but the question is -- will they have gas to be able to pump? There were some stations that had to close down because they weren't able to have their deliveries. But, the lines seemed to be much longer yesterday, as far as we could tell driving around this morning, all looked normal at the gas stations. I guess the question the question at this point becomes: How high gas prices get? We saw yesterday that prices rose at 10 -- up 10 cents at one station and there were other reports that people were paying -- you know, 10, 20 cents higher than the normal price for gas, so the question is whether there might be some people trying to take advantage of this situation, and whether there were any supply issues that might cause prices to rise in the Midwest as you know, has already seen some price increases over the past couple of weeks.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's hope that's not the case. Thanks very much, Lisa Leiter.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
