Flooding cripples New York's aging infrastructure

[rodeodance]

Source: reuters

Flooding cripples New York's aging infrastructure

By Helen Chernikoff 40 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Flooding in New York's subway lines ground the morning commute to a halt on Wednesday, angering New Yorkers who are facing rail and utility fee hikes to support an aging infrastructure.


Every subway line coming into Manhattan was affected by flooding after a severe storm before dawn ripped roofs off houses, caused power outages and triggered tornado warnings.

"Riders are stunned that the system is so vulnerable to rain," said Gene Russianoff, a spokesman for The Straphangers Campaign, a transit advocacy group. "It's not like we live in the Gobi Desert."

None of the city's subway lines was running at full capacity during the morning rush and several were shut down completely, New York State's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Paul Fleuranges told local TV news.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070808/ts_nm/newyork_transport_dc

[dipsydoodle]

1. Yep - life's a bitch

but maybe not as bad as it will be for Iraqi folk if that dam goes :
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2945670

[cspanlovr]

2. I rode those subways everyday, twice a day, for over 15 years.

I can feel the misery of those poor people stuck in tunnels between stations. I feel for all the people affected by this, and there are millions of them.

[nick303]

23. Nobody was stuck in the tunnels

We just had to walk to work, not go to work, etc

[aquart]

3. This is not just rain. This is global warming rain.

And it's going to get worse. I woke up this morning and my city is in pieces. Will someone tell me why we're still worrying about terrorists?????

[aquart]

4. "Vacate, Restricted, Safe."

Don't anybody tell me this is just ordinary rain. We have inspectors assessing whether homes and buildings are still safe enough to live in. LIKE THEY DID IN NEW ORLEANS.

WAKE UP! This is New York City and terrorism is NOT our big problem.

[calimary]

14. Dang! No kidding. We could sure use some of that extra rain out here.

Californians would be more than happy to take it off your hands - we're shriveling up out here. Just a few months ago, the L.A. Times ran a front-page article talking about "permanent drought." YIKES!

Yeah, and we're still most worried about terr.

[kestrel91316]

19. What's "rain"?

[Golden Raisin]

5. It was pretty bad.

The storm was very intense and occurred in the early morning hours prior to people getting up and starting their commute. There was a domino effect. It effected virtually every subway line, which in turn effected buses, which in turn effected cars, etc., etc. Long Island Railroad, MetroNorth and Path trains were royally screwed-up too. Streets were closed or detoured. All 3 major airports had delays, cancellations, etc. Trees are down, there's debris on subway & rail tracks, 3rd rails under water, etc. On top of everything else it's very hot & humid today (90's) with heat indices predicted around 100-101.

[Bitwit1234]

6. HuffPost is posting Fox News in NYC FLOODED

Wonder if it washed out all the flotsom and jetsom especially o'reilly.

[MADem]

11. Stuff like that makes atheists rethink their positions!!! nt

[Cassandra]

16. That part of the news was fun.

I'm sure they'll have an Exxon shill on as soon as they get the place dried out.

[yardwork]

21. Headline: "Faux News Moves to Higher Ground - Global Warming Still a Myth!"

[Zensea]

7. I got out of the subway and walked

I realized pretty quickly it would be at least an hour before they got things running, that the buses would not be that fast since traffic would get grid-locked, etc.
So I walked from the tip of north Manhattan to Mid-town.
That's about 7 miles.
Took about 2 hours.
Nice little morning workout.
No problem except for showing up at work all sweaty.:)
It probably would have taken about that long if I'd stayed on the subway or tried to take a bus.

People who live in Manhattan & the nearer parts of Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn who get angry about this are just a bunch of whiners as far as I'm concerned.
Plus since it was affecting everyone, it's not like anyone would get in trouble for showing up to work late!
Deal with it.
Things don't always run smoothly.

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. It's not what happened today ... the question is whether it's now

systemic. Of course, what happened on the Brighton line was downed trees, not flooding.

[Zensea]

12. Yeah, I agree actually

One day is an inconvenience.
If it keeps happening all the time, then I can understand the anger or at least frustration regarding getting the infrastructure fixed.

[smirkymonkey]

22. I don't have a problem so much with the fact that the subways

flooded - the storms were severe and a lot of water came down in a very short period of time. What angered me (and most people that I spoke with) was that there was NO communication about the system failure. None from the MTA (station attendants were sitting there watching people going through the turnstiles - paying the fare - when they knew there was no train service), none from the radio stations, none from the local tv stations, none from local websites - at least not in time to let people know what was going on before it was too late.

I was lucky - I left my apartment very early today and it took me 2 hours to get to work so I was in before 9am (normally takes me under 30 mins) - but many of my work colleagues had a hellish morning because they couldn't get a train, cab or bus and they lived too far to walk - they ended up getting in around 11am - Noon.

What really worries me is what would happen if there was a hurricane or other disaster where we would have to evacuate the city. We'd be screwed. I was toying with the idea of leaving NYC lately. This kind of helped me make up my mind. I don't think I'll be here by this time next year. It's just getting worse and worse in so many ways.

[lynnertic]

20. You're right, things don't always run smoothly.

But remember the blackout last year?

When does it go from "not always running smoothly" to SNAFU?

ON edit: oops, someone already made that point. sorry for not reading far enough...

[truthisfreedom]

8. If they think it's bad now...

[MADem]

10. Hmmm. It sounded so pleasant when the GOP used that happy "climate change" term, didn't it?

Get in your rowboat and paddle, there, Carrie Bradshaw!!! It's SOAKED IN THE CITY fer the likes-o you!!!

[habitual]

13. It's not all bad

One good thing to come out of this: My accounting Professor couldn't make it to Hunter and we had the day off...

the bad part was getting into and out of manhattan to find that out!

[mbperrin]

15. No one could have anticipated

that global warming could affect coastal cities. Right?

[Cassandra]

17. It's not really the age but the fact of being underground.

Water is pumped out of the subways every day; this was quite a storm.

[THUNDER HANDS]

18. so glad I wasn't in the city today

90 degrees and humid as fuck out right now. You can hardly breathe.

[kineneb]

24. "The World Without Us" - flooding of the subways

check out what the author has to say about the NYC subways:
http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html

Scientific American had an article about this in their July 2007 edition.

[Javaman]

25. Just bought it! I'm starting it tonight! nt

[Javaman]

26. And what happens when climate change happens in earnest and the oceans rise?

I'm thinking gondolas down 5th avenue.

[donsu]

27. it is "in earnest" right now. many islands in the S. Pac. are now under

water and islands to our east and south are losing ground every yr. to the sea. more and more loss, faster and faster

the Gulf Stream has already slowed down 60+%. and it is slowing down, faster and faster. nobody knows what that will bring.

[Javaman]

28. Good point. nt