Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Canadian Officials Say Blackout Started in New York
Aired August 15, 2003 - 05:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Talking about blame, a lot of people are blaming Canada. So let's go to the phone lines right now and talk to Scott Metcalfe of CFTR 680 Radio out of Toronto.
Good morning.
SCOTT METCALFE, CFTR 680 RADIO: Good morning.
COSTELLO: You know a lot of people here are blaming Canada for this?
METCALFE: Yes, well we may -- you can blame us for the Alberta Clippers that bring the cold weather, but I don't know if anybody quite knows why this happened this time.
COSTELLO: Well what are officials saying in Canada?
METCALFE: Well they're not much -- not saying much of anything. What they are trying to do is keep people calm. Toronto here is still pretty much in darkness. There are little pockets in the city where there is power back on, but still a lot of areas that don't have power. They don't have streetlights. And in fact, the premier of the province, Ernie Eves, who is like a state governor, is telling people that if they don't have to go to work, stay home. And he is asking industries that if they can to shut down for the day.
COSTELLO: Are you guys having problems with looting or with people becoming so frustrated they are doing things that perhaps they shouldn't?
METCALFE: There have been little pockets of that occurring. The police have not given us many details right now. I guess they have got other things that they have to watch out for. But there have been some robberies, they say, sort of petty robberies. They are not calling it looting and they say there is no suggestion of any looting, at least in the Toronto area.
COSTELLO: Initially when the power failed up in Canada, what was the initial thought?
METCALFE: I think it was one of those things, because we had a recent outing not that long ago. And you know there have been similar stories here, as there are in other parts of the United States, like in California where they -- the feeling is is we just don't have enough power to run things the way we run them with, you know, every building having air conditioning and so on and so forth. And there have been a lot of questions about whether or not something like this might happen. So when it first happened, everybody kind of shrugged and said well it's one of those rolling blackouts and things will come back on. And of course here we are 13 hours later and a lot of it is still not on.
COSTELLO: Yes, and who would have figured so many would be affected by this?
METCALFE: Yes, well there's -- yes, exactly. You know there's five million in this city and then millions upon millions more. It's unbelievable when you think of how many people are without power right now.
COSTELLO: Yes, you're a radio reporter, so do you think many people are listening this morning?
METCALFE: Well when we were on the air they were. We were -- we were knocked off the air for a little while, which is just about the worst time you can be knocked off the air, but we got back on. And some of our reporters were out running around in the streets saying that every car radio they passed had our station on because we're an all news station so.
COSTELLO: I'm sure because...
METCALFE: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... you know of course people without power certainly aren't watching us because their TVs won't work.
METCALFE: Exactly.
COSTELLO: So thank goodness for you. Thank you so much for joining us, Scott Metcalfe of CFTR 680 Radio out of Toronto.
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 - 05:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Talking about blame, a lot of people are blaming Canada. So let's go to the phone lines right now and talk to Scott Metcalfe of CFTR 680 Radio out of Toronto.
Good morning.
SCOTT METCALFE, CFTR 680 RADIO: Good morning.
COSTELLO: You know a lot of people here are blaming Canada for this?
METCALFE: Yes, well we may -- you can blame us for the Alberta Clippers that bring the cold weather, but I don't know if anybody quite knows why this happened this time.
COSTELLO: Well what are officials saying in Canada?
METCALFE: Well they're not much -- not saying much of anything. What they are trying to do is keep people calm. Toronto here is still pretty much in darkness. There are little pockets in the city where there is power back on, but still a lot of areas that don't have power. They don't have streetlights. And in fact, the premier of the province, Ernie Eves, who is like a state governor, is telling people that if they don't have to go to work, stay home. And he is asking industries that if they can to shut down for the day.
COSTELLO: Are you guys having problems with looting or with people becoming so frustrated they are doing things that perhaps they shouldn't?
METCALFE: There have been little pockets of that occurring. The police have not given us many details right now. I guess they have got other things that they have to watch out for. But there have been some robberies, they say, sort of petty robberies. They are not calling it looting and they say there is no suggestion of any looting, at least in the Toronto area.
COSTELLO: Initially when the power failed up in Canada, what was the initial thought?
METCALFE: I think it was one of those things, because we had a recent outing not that long ago. And you know there have been similar stories here, as there are in other parts of the United States, like in California where they -- the feeling is is we just don't have enough power to run things the way we run them with, you know, every building having air conditioning and so on and so forth. And there have been a lot of questions about whether or not something like this might happen. So when it first happened, everybody kind of shrugged and said well it's one of those rolling blackouts and things will come back on. And of course here we are 13 hours later and a lot of it is still not on.
COSTELLO: Yes, and who would have figured so many would be affected by this?
METCALFE: Yes, well there's -- yes, exactly. You know there's five million in this city and then millions upon millions more. It's unbelievable when you think of how many people are without power right now.
COSTELLO: Yes, you're a radio reporter, so do you think many people are listening this morning?
METCALFE: Well when we were on the air they were. We were -- we were knocked off the air for a little while, which is just about the worst time you can be knocked off the air, but we got back on. And some of our reporters were out running around in the streets saying that every car radio they passed had our station on because we're an all news station so.
COSTELLO: I'm sure because...
METCALFE: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... you know of course people without power certainly aren't watching us because their TVs won't work.
METCALFE: Exactly.
COSTELLO: So thank goodness for you. Thank you so much for joining us, Scott Metcalfe of CFTR 680 Radio out of Toronto.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
