Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

After Isabel: In the Dark

Aired September 23, 2003 - 07:10   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: On another story, Soledad, more than a million people who lost power in Thursday's hurricane still today have no electricity -- no lights, no refrigerators, no hot water. Some of the utilities say they will not have service running normally until Friday or longer.
Pepco is one of the biggest power companies in the D.C. area. A spokesperson, Bob Dobkin, is with us from the company's headquarters there in Washington D.C.

Sir, good morning to you, Mr. Dobkin.

BOB DOBKIN, SPOKESMAN, PEPCO: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: The numbers I have from "The Washington Post," only in the D.C. area today thus far 290,000 are still without power. Of that number, 153,000 are your own Pepco customers. Is that still the case?

DOBKIN: No, we've been doing some good work during the night, and it's down to about 133,000. But we've just gone through a tremendous downpour here of tropical rains, and we know already that more trees have come down and that's going to cause a slight uptick in our outages.

HEMMER: So, at this point you have 20,000 reduced and the number is still, though, a substantial number here -- 133,000. I'm told it might be Friday or longer. Why is it taking so long?

DOBKIN: Well, if you saw the damage here, and I'm sure you have on some of the news shows, just about all of the damage was caused by trees coming down on our lines, snapping them like toothpicks. It's unprecedented. In D.C. alone, the mayor reports there were 700 trees down, and we have two other counties where we had about the same, although they're larger so it's even more trees.

But it's the overwhelming cause of things, and, of course, these huge trees, it takes time just to get rid of them, so our repair trucks can get in and get to work. We've got almost 900 crews on the streets working 12-hour days, 24 hours a day.

HEMMER: Some are suggesting, though, you were not properly prepared for this storm. With all due respect to Mother Nature and the number of people who have lost their lives in this, others are saying that you're cutting back on budgets, and that has hurt your effort. Is there truth in either one of those claims?

DOBKIN: No, I think that's nonsense. We were prepared for this. All of the utilities were prepared, but we can't prevent the damage or the -- nobody, though, could anticipate the huge amount of trees that are down from the Carolinas to New Jersey. What we're seeing now really is the result of weather -- last year, a severe drought on the East Coast that weakened trees, followed by probably the wettest weather in decades. And the trees out there are literally floating in the mud. It doesn't take much wind to knock them over, and that's, as I said, the biggest cause of our problem.

HEMMER: You mentioned another storm coming through the area. The ground is already saturated throughout the area of Washington D.C. Best case scenario, as we sit here and speak this morning, for those without power, when do they get it back?

DOBKIN: We'll have almost everyone back on Friday. It could take a little longer. It also depends on the weather, because it delays the crews. I understand there's a lot of flooding in the Metropolitan area this morning, and that also delays the crews getting to their job sites.

HEMMER: We will watch for Friday and be in touch. Bob Dobkin, thanks, from Pepco down in Washington D.C.

DOBKIN: Thank you.

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 23, 2003 - 07:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: On another story, Soledad, more than a million people who lost power in Thursday's hurricane still today have no electricity -- no lights, no refrigerators, no hot water. Some of the utilities say they will not have service running normally until Friday or longer.
Pepco is one of the biggest power companies in the D.C. area. A spokesperson, Bob Dobkin, is with us from the company's headquarters there in Washington D.C.

Sir, good morning to you, Mr. Dobkin.

BOB DOBKIN, SPOKESMAN, PEPCO: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: The numbers I have from "The Washington Post," only in the D.C. area today thus far 290,000 are still without power. Of that number, 153,000 are your own Pepco customers. Is that still the case?

DOBKIN: No, we've been doing some good work during the night, and it's down to about 133,000. But we've just gone through a tremendous downpour here of tropical rains, and we know already that more trees have come down and that's going to cause a slight uptick in our outages.

HEMMER: So, at this point you have 20,000 reduced and the number is still, though, a substantial number here -- 133,000. I'm told it might be Friday or longer. Why is it taking so long?

DOBKIN: Well, if you saw the damage here, and I'm sure you have on some of the news shows, just about all of the damage was caused by trees coming down on our lines, snapping them like toothpicks. It's unprecedented. In D.C. alone, the mayor reports there were 700 trees down, and we have two other counties where we had about the same, although they're larger so it's even more trees.

But it's the overwhelming cause of things, and, of course, these huge trees, it takes time just to get rid of them, so our repair trucks can get in and get to work. We've got almost 900 crews on the streets working 12-hour days, 24 hours a day.

HEMMER: Some are suggesting, though, you were not properly prepared for this storm. With all due respect to Mother Nature and the number of people who have lost their lives in this, others are saying that you're cutting back on budgets, and that has hurt your effort. Is there truth in either one of those claims?

DOBKIN: No, I think that's nonsense. We were prepared for this. All of the utilities were prepared, but we can't prevent the damage or the -- nobody, though, could anticipate the huge amount of trees that are down from the Carolinas to New Jersey. What we're seeing now really is the result of weather -- last year, a severe drought on the East Coast that weakened trees, followed by probably the wettest weather in decades. And the trees out there are literally floating in the mud. It doesn't take much wind to knock them over, and that's, as I said, the biggest cause of our problem.

HEMMER: You mentioned another storm coming through the area. The ground is already saturated throughout the area of Washington D.C. Best case scenario, as we sit here and speak this morning, for those without power, when do they get it back?

DOBKIN: We'll have almost everyone back on Friday. It could take a little longer. It also depends on the weather, because it delays the crews. I understand there's a lot of flooding in the Metropolitan area this morning, and that also delays the crews getting to their job sites.

HEMMER: We will watch for Friday and be in touch. Bob Dobkin, thanks, from Pepco down in Washington D.C.

DOBKIN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.