Flood Report Spurs $30M in MTA Upgrades
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The city’s subways will be fitted with $30 million in immediate improvements, ranging from Doppler radar to emergency “step-up” platforms to keep riders above water if an entrance floods, following the release of a report that says Metropolitan Transit Authority failures were the reason the system was derailed for hours by 3 1/2 inches of rain.
Governor Spitzer ordered the report on the day of the storm, August 8, and the MTA quickly formed a task force of state and city officials, as well as outside consultants, to write it.
Its conclusions in the 115-page report are unsparing, citing failures of operations, engineering, and communications. It found that the underground system’s pumps cannot handle flood conditions, that it lacks valves to block sewage from backing up into tunnels, and that insufficient cleaning exacerbates the clogging of the drains. The report also blames the MTA for failing to provide customers with travel alternatives and for failing to offer accurate information in stations.
The recommendations, which include ramping up a two-year-old push for cell phone service on subway platforms, are billed as solutions to the problems, the report details.
“While the August 8 storm was the most severe in memory, it is clear that the MTA must do more for our customers in extreme situations,” the executive director of the MTA, Elliot Sander, said in a statement.
Complaints about spotty communication and poor service during storms are long-standing in New York City. A 2004 report by the MTA’s inspector general found “historic neglect” of the sewage valves, and though $115 million has been earmarked to upgrade pumps by 2010, transit advocates have called the improvement process too slow.
One longtime critic, Gene Russianoff, the chief attorney of the Straphangers Campaign, said yesterday that he is optimistic that this report will have a stronger impact than the report in 2004, which he called a “whitewash.”
“This time around the MTA brought in people from the outside,” Mr. Russianoff said, praising the task force’s recommendations as “solid.”
The report also cites climate change experts at Columbia University who told the task force that rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and the disappearance of permeable land will only boost the risk of flooding in the future.
