Irate City Officials Demanding a Probe on Rain Disruptions
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Furious city officials threatened an investigation into how a brief but intense rain storm yesterday morning shut down much of the city’s transportation system, a repetition of the chaos caused by another rainstorm five years ago.
The tropical depression formerly known as Hurricane Frances dropped 3.25 inches of rain in just about three hours, overtaxing drainage systems for roads and subways. The same thing happened five years ago, on August 26, 1999, when a nearly identical amount of rain fell on the city and subways were also shut down for much of the morning rush hour.
The city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, demanded an investigation, saying she was “outraged.”
“It appears that an hour or so of heavy rain paralyzed mass transit in New York City,” Ms. Gotbaum wrote in a letter to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow. “It is not unreasonable to expect to arrive at work on time even in moderately bad weather. Rain is not a rare event in New York City, so the MTA should undertake whatever repairs are necessary to prevent major flooding of tracks and stations.”
A spokesman for City Council Speaker Gifford Miller said the speaker might launch a probe. Yesterday’s downpour brought the West Side Highway and the FDR flood “puddles” of up to a foot deep, and entrances to the Bronx Whitestone and Triborough Bridges were closed for part of the morning rush hour.
Buses were overwhelmed as subway lines shut down or were rerouted.
At Borough Hall in Brooklyn, the rerouting of the A, C, and F trains sent a human flood up the stairwells, where they swamped nearby buses or frantically hailed cabs,
The nos. 1, 2, 3, and 9 lines were shut down for an hour in Manhattan as the torrents of water were pumped out. Most of the lines recovered for the evening rush hour, but the B, D, and M trains remained closed as extensive flooding and aging equipment prevented them from reopening.
The subway lines that were able to operate had long delays, and commuters caught below ground could be seen tapping their toes impatiently, rolling their eyes, and groaning as commutes that usually took 45 minutes dragged out past three hours.
“It’s unbelievable that rain would shut down the subway,” said Alexandra Siegler, 27, who recently moved to Brooklyn from Toronto, while stuck on the A train. “This has never happened in Toronto, with snow storms and rain, I’ve never seen the subway shut down in Toronto.”
Some people were forced to change trains more than five times. Others complained that the partial shutdown, coming on the heels of the Republican National Convention, when they were forced to leave early to avoid Penn Station traffic, was just too much.
Express trains, when they ran, moved slower than locals. On one stalled no. 4 train, the MTA announced passengers could call an 800 number for a letter to send to employers.
New York City Transit officials said the storm simply overwhelmed the 301 pumps and wells that remove 17 million gallons of water from the subways system daily – essentially the same thing officials said five years ago.
“Mainly you’re talking about the laws of physics – a tremendous volume of water having to be placed in a finite area. It was a very difficult job,” said a spokesman for NYCT, Charles Seaton. “You’re not going to run an electrified train system once the water reaches the contact strip.”
But a lawyer for the Straphanger’s Campaign, Gene Russianoff, said transit officials should have been better prepared.
“In both cases they say the sewer system was overwhelmed,” said a lawyer for the Straphanger’s Campaign, Gene Russianoff. He thought those “lessons were learned the last time this happened.”
Mr. Seaton pointed out that the NYCT has proposed in its capital budget an upgrade on pumps for six subway lines and new wells for four lines, but that budget has not yet been reviewed by the Legislature.
He insisted no amount of new equipment would have saved the system yesterday as nearly every tunnel saw some level of flooding.
The National Weather Service predicting thunderstorms today, with three to six more inches of rain as the center of the depression works its way up the Atlantic Coast.
The storm should be centered over New York City today before making its way into Canada.
The rain should be spread out enough to keep the subways from flooding again, and Mr. Seaton expressed confidence than unless there is another period of intense rainfall, today’s commute should be close to normal.
State officials are worried the bridge and tunnel-access roads that flooded yesterday could do the same today.
“Aside from inspecting and seeing that the drainage was clear, in some cases it’s hard to prevent the flooding from occurring,” said the deputy director of Region 11, Philip Eng. “The system can only hold so much water.”
The heavy rain and forecasts for more forced the cancellation of designer Miguel Androver’s show, originally scheduled for Sarah D. Roosevelt Park last night, but everything in Fashion Week’s main tent at Bryant Park went off smoothly.
An elevated floor, a pump, and the strategic use of sandbags protected most the show space from flooding. The first show went off on time at 10 a.m. with a full house.
“I’ve been doing this 11 years,” said Fashion Week’s executive director, Lynn Longendyke. “I know all the low spots in the park.”
Midtown businesses, already economically battered by the Republican National Convention last week, endured another day of fewer people on the street.
“The rain hurt a lot of businesses. There were no people outside,” said the proprietor of Nut Castle, Charlie Shin. Mr. Shin was a half-hour late opening his store because of the difficulty getting in.