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American Morning
NYC Mayor Calls for Patience, Understanding
Aired August 15, 2003 - 09:11 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get down to Washington again and pick things up with CNN's Jeanne Meserve, who's checking in now on homeland security.
What are they saying at this hour?
Good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
As you know, it took only 45 minutes last night to say that this probably was not caused by terrorism. However, I am told this morning that the department will continue to look at whether there might be some sort of foul play involved. That investigation, experts say, will probably take several days.
We have a graphic representation of exactly what happened last night. There's a company called Jenscape, which monitors the output of energy plants for energy traders, and they provided us with this map, and all those red marks that you see, those are power plants that went down. They went down, they told us, between 4:10 and 4:13 yesterday afternoon. They saw 21 fire plants -- excuse me, power plants go down, and we have another graphic to show you of what happened at one plant. This, from a plant in Dunkirk, New York. You can see the standard ups and downs of energy production, and then all of a sudden, after 4:00, you that it plunge back down to absolutely nothing.
The Department of Homeland Security tells me to this point in time they've concentrated on a couple of things when it comes to the electrical grid. They've tried to protect the system against cyberattacks, and they spent a fair amount of attention trying to protect facilities from physical attack.
There will be after-action reports here. They are going to look at what else has to be done to protect the system.
I talked to one homeland security official today who said he was somewhat flabbergasted that this was not contained sooner, that it went as far as it did. The system simply is not supposed to work that way. So, clearly, there's going to be a lot of looking at exactly what happened and why.
From the Department of Homeland Security, this is probably the biggest workout they have gotten since the department was formed. By and large, they think it went pretty well. They formed quickly. Communications with a critical infrastructure areas involved, also with the state and local governments involved, they felt that the flow of information was okay. Clearly, it did take 45 minutes to rule out terrorism.
But the fact of the matter is, just because there's a new department, that doesn't mean they're clairvoyant. They still have to go out and the private sector has to go out and determine what's going on. That's why the delay there. They also felt that the local governments performed extraordinarily well, and they say that's testimony to all that has happened since 9/11, all money, all the training, all the drills, that cities were ready to take care of this. You didn't see panic. You saw communications going on amongst the agencies that needed it.
Although this was the biggest test since 9/11, it did not test the whole system, however. There were no -- as catastrophic as this was, it wasn't a mass-casualty situation. They weren't having to deal with the injured also. They also, as it turns out, weren't having to deal way massive federal response. They were poised to do that, had done inventories of warehouses, figured out where critical supplies were. People all across the system were put on alert.
But the fact of the matter is, no state governments have asked for any assistance. They've been able to handle it on their own to now.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: Jeanne, thanks. Jeanne Meserve, working the homeland security front down there in Washington D.C. The mayor here in New York says by the end of the day, it is reasonable to conclude that power could be back on and full services could be returned here in New York City. We'll see if that's the case. I got to tell you, a lot of folks in the Tristate area here in New York, in Connecticut, New Jersey, hoping it's the case. It is going to be another hot day.
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 - 09:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get down to Washington again and pick things up with CNN's Jeanne Meserve, who's checking in now on homeland security.
What are they saying at this hour?
Good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
As you know, it took only 45 minutes last night to say that this probably was not caused by terrorism. However, I am told this morning that the department will continue to look at whether there might be some sort of foul play involved. That investigation, experts say, will probably take several days.
We have a graphic representation of exactly what happened last night. There's a company called Jenscape, which monitors the output of energy plants for energy traders, and they provided us with this map, and all those red marks that you see, those are power plants that went down. They went down, they told us, between 4:10 and 4:13 yesterday afternoon. They saw 21 fire plants -- excuse me, power plants go down, and we have another graphic to show you of what happened at one plant. This, from a plant in Dunkirk, New York. You can see the standard ups and downs of energy production, and then all of a sudden, after 4:00, you that it plunge back down to absolutely nothing.
The Department of Homeland Security tells me to this point in time they've concentrated on a couple of things when it comes to the electrical grid. They've tried to protect the system against cyberattacks, and they spent a fair amount of attention trying to protect facilities from physical attack.
There will be after-action reports here. They are going to look at what else has to be done to protect the system.
I talked to one homeland security official today who said he was somewhat flabbergasted that this was not contained sooner, that it went as far as it did. The system simply is not supposed to work that way. So, clearly, there's going to be a lot of looking at exactly what happened and why.
From the Department of Homeland Security, this is probably the biggest workout they have gotten since the department was formed. By and large, they think it went pretty well. They formed quickly. Communications with a critical infrastructure areas involved, also with the state and local governments involved, they felt that the flow of information was okay. Clearly, it did take 45 minutes to rule out terrorism.
But the fact of the matter is, just because there's a new department, that doesn't mean they're clairvoyant. They still have to go out and the private sector has to go out and determine what's going on. That's why the delay there. They also felt that the local governments performed extraordinarily well, and they say that's testimony to all that has happened since 9/11, all money, all the training, all the drills, that cities were ready to take care of this. You didn't see panic. You saw communications going on amongst the agencies that needed it.
Although this was the biggest test since 9/11, it did not test the whole system, however. There were no -- as catastrophic as this was, it wasn't a mass-casualty situation. They weren't having to deal with the injured also. They also, as it turns out, weren't having to deal way massive federal response. They were poised to do that, had done inventories of warehouses, figured out where critical supplies were. People all across the system were put on alert.
But the fact of the matter is, no state governments have asked for any assistance. They've been able to handle it on their own to now.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: Jeanne, thanks. Jeanne Meserve, working the homeland security front down there in Washington D.C. The mayor here in New York says by the end of the day, it is reasonable to conclude that power could be back on and full services could be returned here in New York City. We'll see if that's the case. I got to tell you, a lot of folks in the Tristate area here in New York, in Connecticut, New Jersey, hoping it's the case. It is going to be another hot day.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
