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Breaking News

New Yorks Filling the Streets as Blackout Continues

Aired August 14, 2003 - 16:33   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: I'm now being told that parts of Toledo are experiencing blackouts. Our Maria Hinojosa, Jason mentioned, looking out of the window from our bureau there in New York out on the streets, there's just thousands and thousands of people, not quite sure what to do as this blackout has hit New York City, also Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, Ottawa, now we're told parts of Toledo.
Maria Hinojosa joins us now via cell phone out there on the streets of New York. Gosh, Maria, I can just imagine what it's like. Give us a feel for what you're seeing and what you're experiencing.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you right now that I have people who are standing in front of me on this line. I am not on a cell phone, I'm on the -- the cell phones are not working. People are very upset just because I've been on the phone for about three minutes, just waiting in line.

So right now what we know is that there are outages across all of the five boroughs. We also have a report from someone who was calling into a sister in a hospital, Elkhurst Hospital, that the hospital is entirely shut down.

The mood just a few minutes ago seemed a little bit calmer, but now as people are realizing how extensive this is, people are beginning to get a little frustrated. A lot of anger. People standing here waiting to try to call their families. So Kyra, if you have a quick question for me, but I'm going to have to get off because people are beginning to get very upset about the fact of just two minutes on the phone.

PHILLIPS: All right. I can totally understand. Maria, OK. We were saying possibly a fire at the Con Edison plant. I don't know if you can see anything from where you are. Can you tell us? Go ahead.

HINOJOSA: No, no. You know what, Kyra? We are hearing that there may have been an explosion on 14th Street. I'm going to start walking down that way before. People are trying to hang up the phone on me as I'm speaking. I'm protecting the phone.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. That's our Maria Hinojosa out on the streets of New York City.

We, of course, don't want anybody to panic as you're watching this coverage. But as you can see from our Maria Hinojosa on the streets of New York, can't even stay on the phone with us there on the streets because people just panicking, not sure what to do, not understanding why there's been this massive blackout in New York City. 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 14, 2003 - 16:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: I'm now being told that parts of Toledo are experiencing blackouts. Our Maria Hinojosa, Jason mentioned, looking out of the window from our bureau there in New York out on the streets, there's just thousands and thousands of people, not quite sure what to do as this blackout has hit New York City, also Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, Ottawa, now we're told parts of Toledo.
Maria Hinojosa joins us now via cell phone out there on the streets of New York. Gosh, Maria, I can just imagine what it's like. Give us a feel for what you're seeing and what you're experiencing.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you right now that I have people who are standing in front of me on this line. I am not on a cell phone, I'm on the -- the cell phones are not working. People are very upset just because I've been on the phone for about three minutes, just waiting in line.

So right now what we know is that there are outages across all of the five boroughs. We also have a report from someone who was calling into a sister in a hospital, Elkhurst Hospital, that the hospital is entirely shut down.

The mood just a few minutes ago seemed a little bit calmer, but now as people are realizing how extensive this is, people are beginning to get a little frustrated. A lot of anger. People standing here waiting to try to call their families. So Kyra, if you have a quick question for me, but I'm going to have to get off because people are beginning to get very upset about the fact of just two minutes on the phone.

PHILLIPS: All right. I can totally understand. Maria, OK. We were saying possibly a fire at the Con Edison plant. I don't know if you can see anything from where you are. Can you tell us? Go ahead.

HINOJOSA: No, no. You know what, Kyra? We are hearing that there may have been an explosion on 14th Street. I'm going to start walking down that way before. People are trying to hang up the phone on me as I'm speaking. I'm protecting the phone.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. That's our Maria Hinojosa out on the streets of New York City.

We, of course, don't want anybody to panic as you're watching this coverage. But as you can see from our Maria Hinojosa on the streets of New York, can't even stay on the phone with us there on the streets because people just panicking, not sure what to do, not understanding why there's been this massive blackout in New York City. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com