Back Stories: Blackout Of 1977

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- During the blackout of 1977, WCBS reporter Irene Cornell went to Harlem to cover the looting.

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When she arrived on scene, "the cops had pretty much given up."

"They were just directing the traffic of looters in and out of the stores," she remembers. "To keep it peaceful, to keep the looters from attacking other looters, and to just keep it moving."