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American Morning
Interview With Virginia Governor Mark Warner
Aired September 19, 2003 - 07:06 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: States of emergency have been declared in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Three and a half million customers in those states have no electricity. And the president has signed an emergency disaster declaration for many parts of North Carolina and Virginia.
Virginia's governor, Mark Warner, joins us this morning from Richmond.
Good morning to you, sir. Nice to see you, and thanks for joining us.
GOV. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let's start with the damage overnight. Give me an assessment right now of how many folks are without power this morning.
WARNER: We've got over 1.6 million customers alone in Virginia without power, and that means in certain parts of our state, Hampton Roads, that's more than 90 percent of the customers without power, central Virginia, over 90 percent, northern Virginia around Washington, D.C., about 50 percent.
And utility companies have briefed us. They said they have got their personnel on the ground, and they're now deploying those personnel. Their top priorities in terms of restoring power will be hospitals. We'll be getting the water supplies back up and operating. A number of communities are without water at this point, and that's got to be one of their top priorities.
O'BRIEN: So, when are you expecting that those folks, those significant numbers are actually going to get a chance to get their power back?
WARNER: Well, with this broad of power outages, and we're literally talking about even more people than customers when you add that all together, it will be a number of days.
Now, I think the government has done all it can to pre-prepare. Utilities had made sure that they briefed us of their contingency plans. They said they were ready. Now, they're got -- the utility companies have got to carry out those plans and get this power restored.
O'BRIEN: I read that you were actually in the middle of a news conference when the power went out. How did you, and where did you, ride out the storm?
WARNER: Well, it was. We were here at the Emergency Operation Center, which is part of our state place headquarters, in the middle of a press conference yesterday, a press briefing. The power did go out, and it still hasn't returned here. And obviously, our Emergency Operation Center still has power, but the balance of the building is without power.
I was here most of the evening, and then went back to the Governor's Mansion last night. And as I got back through that storm, I found trees down everywhere, a massive, probably 200-foot tall tree down right in front of the mansion gate on Capitol Square.
So, we have not only the situation of power outages, we have trees down, and we have the ongoing threat of flooding. We've got flooding not only in our Hampton Roads area, our tidal areas, but also the threat of flooding in our mountains, as those regions got in excess, in some communities, of 15 inches of rain.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's going to be the big problem today. Governor Mark Warner, we appreciate your time. I know you're busy this morning, so thanks a lot.
WARNER: Thank you, Soledad.
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 September 19, 2003 - 07:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: States of emergency have been declared in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Three and a half million customers in those states have no electricity. And the president has signed an emergency disaster declaration for many parts of North Carolina and Virginia.
Virginia's governor, Mark Warner, joins us this morning from Richmond.
Good morning to you, sir. Nice to see you, and thanks for joining us.
GOV. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let's start with the damage overnight. Give me an assessment right now of how many folks are without power this morning.
WARNER: We've got over 1.6 million customers alone in Virginia without power, and that means in certain parts of our state, Hampton Roads, that's more than 90 percent of the customers without power, central Virginia, over 90 percent, northern Virginia around Washington, D.C., about 50 percent.
And utility companies have briefed us. They said they have got their personnel on the ground, and they're now deploying those personnel. Their top priorities in terms of restoring power will be hospitals. We'll be getting the water supplies back up and operating. A number of communities are without water at this point, and that's got to be one of their top priorities.
O'BRIEN: So, when are you expecting that those folks, those significant numbers are actually going to get a chance to get their power back?
WARNER: Well, with this broad of power outages, and we're literally talking about even more people than customers when you add that all together, it will be a number of days.
Now, I think the government has done all it can to pre-prepare. Utilities had made sure that they briefed us of their contingency plans. They said they were ready. Now, they're got -- the utility companies have got to carry out those plans and get this power restored.
O'BRIEN: I read that you were actually in the middle of a news conference when the power went out. How did you, and where did you, ride out the storm?
WARNER: Well, it was. We were here at the Emergency Operation Center, which is part of our state place headquarters, in the middle of a press conference yesterday, a press briefing. The power did go out, and it still hasn't returned here. And obviously, our Emergency Operation Center still has power, but the balance of the building is without power.
I was here most of the evening, and then went back to the Governor's Mansion last night. And as I got back through that storm, I found trees down everywhere, a massive, probably 200-foot tall tree down right in front of the mansion gate on Capitol Square.
So, we have not only the situation of power outages, we have trees down, and we have the ongoing threat of flooding. We've got flooding not only in our Hampton Roads area, our tidal areas, but also the threat of flooding in our mountains, as those regions got in excess, in some communities, of 15 inches of rain.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's going to be the big problem today. Governor Mark Warner, we appreciate your time. I know you're busy this morning, so thanks a lot.
WARNER: Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
