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Wolf Blitzer On The Streets Of Manhattan
Aired August 14, 2003 - 18:28 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.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: And Kyra, again, to recap quickly, all the evidence is that this is a massive power outage, it has nothing, nothing to do with terrorism. The federal government is saying, it cannot say that definitively just yet, but every indication is, no terrorism involved. New York City and state officials are saying that definitively as they continue to find out the source of this massive power outage today.
You see the scope of the area affected. More than 11 million people live in those cities highlighted on this map. Amoung those, who had their late afternoon work day disrupted was our Wolf Blitzer who was up in New York and who joins us now -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: John, I got to tell you, people in New York are very calm. It's a very congested Manhattan right now, understandably so. A lot of the streets fully, fully in gridlock. It's a little chaotic, but people are generally understand what's going on. They know this is almost certainly some sort of natural disaster that's afflicted, not only New York City, but the greater New York area, indeed all of the Northeastern corridor here in the United States, including Ontario, parts of Canada as well.
So people are taking it in good strides. I'm here in Manhattan. We just walked a lot of blocks to get to this area. I want to bring some guests in. People on the streets of New York who have done some pretty impressive things. We got a couple of guys here who have just been working. Peter -- you're Peter Belzano (ph), right? Peter, you've been working, trying to get some people stuck in elevators.
PETER BELZANO, ELEVATOR REPAIRMAN: Yes.
BLITZER: Tell us what you've been doing.
BELZANO: Well, you know, we're just driving around to all the buildings that we maintain and just checking in with supers, seeing if anybody's been stuck, any problems. Elevators aren't running in the city, so most of the people that are stuck are stuck until we get there.
BLITZER: Well, let me also bring in Gladston (ph). You also work for this elevator company.
GLADSTON, ELEVATOR REPAIRMAN: Yes, I do.
BLITZER: You've rescued a lot of people who were stuck up there. How do you do it? What do you do when the power is off and you got to get into these elevators, where people are trapped? GLADSTON: Well, we have special tools that enable us to get into elevators (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to pry the doors open. People are stuck, I'm (UNINTELLIGIBLE) getting them out, find out what floor they're on, get to that floor and generally get the doors open and release the passengers.
BLITZER: All right, people obviously get very nervous. I want both of you to stand by.
John, we have a lot of people here in New York who are anxious to share their stories. It's been a couple hours or so, but there are some pretty remarkable stories. We're going to bring them to you in the coming minutes, indeed, coming hours. But in the meantime, back to John King in Washington.
KING: And Wolf, we will come back to you momentarily. Keep up your reporting.
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 - 18:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: And Kyra, again, to recap quickly, all the evidence is that this is a massive power outage, it has nothing, nothing to do with terrorism. The federal government is saying, it cannot say that definitively just yet, but every indication is, no terrorism involved. New York City and state officials are saying that definitively as they continue to find out the source of this massive power outage today.
You see the scope of the area affected. More than 11 million people live in those cities highlighted on this map. Amoung those, who had their late afternoon work day disrupted was our Wolf Blitzer who was up in New York and who joins us now -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: John, I got to tell you, people in New York are very calm. It's a very congested Manhattan right now, understandably so. A lot of the streets fully, fully in gridlock. It's a little chaotic, but people are generally understand what's going on. They know this is almost certainly some sort of natural disaster that's afflicted, not only New York City, but the greater New York area, indeed all of the Northeastern corridor here in the United States, including Ontario, parts of Canada as well.
So people are taking it in good strides. I'm here in Manhattan. We just walked a lot of blocks to get to this area. I want to bring some guests in. People on the streets of New York who have done some pretty impressive things. We got a couple of guys here who have just been working. Peter -- you're Peter Belzano (ph), right? Peter, you've been working, trying to get some people stuck in elevators.
PETER BELZANO, ELEVATOR REPAIRMAN: Yes.
BLITZER: Tell us what you've been doing.
BELZANO: Well, you know, we're just driving around to all the buildings that we maintain and just checking in with supers, seeing if anybody's been stuck, any problems. Elevators aren't running in the city, so most of the people that are stuck are stuck until we get there.
BLITZER: Well, let me also bring in Gladston (ph). You also work for this elevator company.
GLADSTON, ELEVATOR REPAIRMAN: Yes, I do.
BLITZER: You've rescued a lot of people who were stuck up there. How do you do it? What do you do when the power is off and you got to get into these elevators, where people are trapped? GLADSTON: Well, we have special tools that enable us to get into elevators (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to pry the doors open. People are stuck, I'm (UNINTELLIGIBLE) getting them out, find out what floor they're on, get to that floor and generally get the doors open and release the passengers.
BLITZER: All right, people obviously get very nervous. I want both of you to stand by.
John, we have a lot of people here in New York who are anxious to share their stories. It's been a couple hours or so, but there are some pretty remarkable stories. We're going to bring them to you in the coming minutes, indeed, coming hours. But in the meantime, back to John King in Washington.
KING: And Wolf, we will come back to you momentarily. Keep up your reporting.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
