MTA Insider On Hurricane Irene: "Worst Case Of Overreaction I've Ever Seen"

via vinothorsen

The unprecedented, widespread MTA shutdown began as of two hours ago, because of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Irene. 1010Wins has been asking listeners: "What do you think: better safe than sorry, or total overreaction?" Two MTA insiders answered that question for us, one of whom came down critically on the MTA's plans: "This is the worst case of overreaction I've ever seen. Its going to be rainy and windy tomorrow."

The insider, who is a retired former employee of MTA NYC Transit, further said: "If the storm is as bad as they say it is, shutting down the most vulnerable sections of the subway might make sense at midnight on Saturday. But the whole system? I don't think so."

Transit historian Peter Derrick, who worked for the MTA from 1982 to 1996, was also dubious about the reaction, but gave more credit to the MTA management:

I also have my doubts as to whether they needed to shut the whole subway system down, but leave it to transit management to have made the right decision on this, since they know much more of the details than I. One key concern, as mentioned in a Times article this morning, was flooding of the subway yards, possibly affecting 200 trains, which is probably about 2000 cars (of a total of about 6000). All of the forecasts I have heard recently say that we will be getting lots and lots of rain, even if the winds might not be so bad.

According to the Encyclopedia of New York City, there have been three other major hurricanes that have produced significant damage to NYC, two of which led to some (but not total) transit shutdowns:

On September 3, 1821, a hurricane passed the city near Jamaica Bay destroying thousands of trees—high tide was nine feet above normal, a record for the time, and there was flooding in The Battery (later, Battery Park) and much of downtown Manhattan.
On September 21, 1938, the Long Island-New England hurricane dropped 4.05 inches of rain, with wind blowing at 35 MPH, and gusts of 80 MPH. Tidal surge was nine feet in the East River, causing flooding, and the subways stopped running for a time, with widespread power outages.
Then on November 25, 1950, the Appalachian wind storm with gusts up to 90 MPH hit Idlewild (now JFK) Airport, and high tides closed LaGuardia Airport.

Update: Derrick added one more comment about the MTA shutdown: "The more I think about it, I believe that the shutdown of the MTA system should have happened about 6 PM today, not at 12 Noon."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in News on August 27, 2011 2:20 PM

Comments [rss]

Gadea

Keeping City Services going, especially the MTA, even during a crisis is the sign of leadership.
Not being on television, hour after hour, speaking in that drone tone, with clearly sick of it,
City Officials standing behind you.

Investigate-NWO-globalists

"The point of storm management is to keep city services running, not to shut down city services."

I'd say you've made the definitive criticism of Bloomturd so far!!!

yahoo-GJAR5QJ6KNYDFJQ5RSWO6KYTTY

I sure, they say that now, over-reaction. But what would they be saying if the entire Coney Island yard was flooded and hundreds of cars were out of commission for days as they dried out. Then what would they say had the city not taken these steps... probably "How could the MTA not have moved all of the vulnerable rolling stock out of harm's way, how could they have not shut down the tunnels that we know flood all the time?" I love these "insiders" who are big on opinion but little on common sense.

Michael Cote

Boo gothamist. More like Gossipmist. Grade: F-

Dwayne Hoover

In addition, considering the local Metro North tracks near my current location are under 4 feet of water, saying the trains should have kept running is beyond dumb.

Dwayne Hoover

Only an idiot who never bothered to actually look at the meteorological models would call it an "over-reaction". This is the reason why we don't have some anonymous MTA moron running the Office of Emergency Management.

B dv

wait till the real one comes, then what would you have done?

M

You been selected to receive a brand new IPAD! Supplies are.. I just bough a brand new iPad... waterlogged spam. more TK

Susan Tang

I don't think it was an over-reaction at all given the penchant for griping around this city. How many of you would have been howling your guts out had you been trapped in a subway car for hours at a clip? Or suing the city should your safety been jeopardized? Did it kill any of you to spend a day at home alone or with your families?

LAURIE IMHAUSER

There is another thing we need to remember, which no one seemed to have mentioned yet, that other workers (like police officers) would be needed. It is a known fact that on weekends only 'skeleton crews' are at work - meaning there are very few people to make sure we all remain safe. If people stayed out later, it was far more likely things that could have gone wrong because there is not enough manpower on the weekends. THIS is the main reason, as someone already suggested, things would get back to normal on a weekday more quickly.

As far as starting to close down too soon, I agree. It should have been done at about 5 pm. As far as over-reacting, I am not too certain about that. We did not know which locations would be affected. It rained heavily in August and the soil has been over-saturated. I personally have relatives in Conn. that lost their power.and a cousin who had to evacuate Long Beach Long Island... like so many others affected by this storm.Personally I think this was handled fairly well.

Daniel Dansby

Good job MT, go look at the Flickr photo group if you have any questions.

Ignatz

Of COURSE it was an over-reaction: they never did it BEFORE, and there have been far worse storms.

Guys like Bloomberg think of mass transit as a "convenience." It's not; it's a necessity. Shutting down mass transit crippled the city FAR more than Irene did. People have to get to work. Some lose a day's pay if they can't get there. Not much of a concern if you're Mike Bloomberg.

And it's STILL shut down. In a DRIZZLE. Probably will be tomorrow, too, when the sun is out.

They didn't close the system during Hurricane Floyd, which was FAR worse. They just closed some tunnels.

How come Bloomberg is the first mayor EVER to feel the need to close the system?

How can you NOT see it's an overreaction?

Adam Moreira

Simple - look at the levels of flooding in the subway...as well as trees down. In the outer boroughs, trees fell on tracks that are in open cuts and/or embankments.

Richard

Just took a look at Parts of Metro-Norths new haven line. Remember this is where people last month cried their eyes out because they got stuck for an hour on a hot day. The line is DEVASTATED in places. Even after the water recedes, they'll have to check every electrical box, all the catenarys, remove the debris. replace the washed out sections of track. Could they have waited another 4 or 5 hours....sure, but you just can't shut down a system THAT fast. They gave 24 hours notice after all

Bottom line...all you armchair experts need to take a reality check.

Robert Feeley

President Obama is leaving immediately on a cross-country tour of hurricane damaged golf courses:
http://www.spnheadlines.com/20...

frank black

Biggest overreaction since Y2K.

pl capeli

mta reacted like a frightened child ,it seems that causing unecessary fear and panic is the new mission of govt these days, but thats fascism for ya

Adam Moreira

Disagree---there was real danger at the time to flooding of garages and tracks---and the latter did happen. Buses can probably be restored as early as early tonight, but buses have to be moved back into their garages first.

Matt

"New mission?" Where was your head during the Bush presidency?

Never mind. I think I know.

Did you enjoy your kayaking, btw?

Matt

It's amazing how people talk about a remarkably complex system as if it were a home appliance. If a trainyard is in a low-lying area, those trains have to be moved, the track has to be clear to move them, and the procedure might not go, shall we say, entirely smoothly. The transit workers continued working long after the last rider stepped off the last car.

Perhaps the whole system could be shut down in four hours if all went exactly right, but that's not usually how things happen, and no responsible manager would say, "half a workday to shut down an underground city, which we've never done before? Sounds fine to me!"

I would love to see a Venn diagram of "People who think the MTA shutdown was overreaction" and "People who were pissed that Empire Szechuan wasn't delivering Saturday." I bet it was quite an overlap.

Adam Moreira

You also have to add to the fact that there is third rail involved. You cannot run the risk of workers being electrocuted.

oscarina

I think the reason they shut the subways down so early was to make sure new yorkers didn't stay outside dithering about till the storm was actually upon them. The shutdown ensured that nobody emergency workers would not have to be rescuing people stuck in subways or out on the street returning from them instead of being available for the kind of emergencies that were going to happen anyway, like downed power lines, flooding, people stuck in cars (like the woman who drowned in hers). I think they did the right thing. I'd be pissed if I knew my tax dollars were being used to save the ass of fools who should've remained at home but were still wandering about like morons in the storm.

oscarina

I think the reason they shut the subways down so early was to make sure new yorkers didn't stay outside dithering about till the storm was actually upon them. The shutdown ensured that nobody emergency workers would not have to be rescuing people stuck in subways or out on the street returning from them instead of being available for the kind of emergencies that were going to happen anyway, like downed power lines, flooding, people stuck in cars (like the woman who drowned in hers). I think they did the right thing. I'd be pissed if I knew my tax dollars were being used to save the ass of fools who should've remained at home but were still wandering about like morons in the storm.

Guest

Can we do something like this shut down in DC? Just think how much money the taxpayers would save.

mmetzg

Localized service suspensions--based on internal MTA expertise, would have been the ticket. And suspended buses then could have been used for anyone in "low lying areas" to leave for higher ground at THEIR OWN DISCRETION. All of us, even those who love to ratchet-up fear and panic; who would parrot of ANY dubious decree of any "ass saving" Mayor, had access to the National Weather Service satellite reports, and all manner of Atlantic sources informing us of the storms potential. There's a lot of batteries and water and can-goods out there now. Maybe you folks can share with us before the next rapture beams you outta here?

LAURIE IMHAUSER

Are you sure we would be able to trust the MTA's expertise? I have yet to figure out just what their expertise is - other than making us dig into our pockets to support their projects. Honestly even most of those never materialize.

mmetzg

Laurie, I'd trust the expertise of those who actually do the work, yes. Unfortunately, my sentiment can only be a hypothetical nod to those WITH expertise, who don't get power; who do their best under rank rankism, in that corruption-rife agency. But really, it's not so difficult--for those with power to order those with expertise to decide what part of the system can stay up and running. It's just easier, and pertinent to the oligarchic flavor of the day, which is a militaristic decree to shut 'er down. If the order came down for rifle-bearing National Guards on every few corners, all manner of Gothamist posters would have been defending that--just in case; for our safety! Well...with 5$ in pocket, I'm trying to check on Grandma and Grandpa's safety right now, since they are house-bound, but can't 'cause of the MTA's wonderful decision. I'm just a whiner, of course...

Micheal

Would you have wanted to work for the MTA during a possible catastrophe? I can't help but notice some folks seem to think those buses and trains are operated by robots and not by human beings.

mmetzg

Yeah, I would have. I like public service. No I don't think buses and trains are operated by robots (dick!) If allowed to work last night, I would have known, based on communication with those in the MTA who--had they been allowed, would have been more appropriate-- when to stop and go home. As someone else mentioned, it should have been 6 pm, not noon, for the shut down. And though hindsight is 20/20 they say, you have to admit the entire system for the most part could have operated and that this confirms what the weather wisdom was, all along. Were you cackling about the category 1/ tropical storm like it was a category 4, or another Katrina? There is a possible catastrophe right now in the level of public-intelligence that we have to "work through".

Fani

Look, we always are willing to spend enormous amounts of money to further lessen the dangers of catastrophies that have only a slight chance of happening. That is what we as Americans do as a nation and as individuals.

Ladder157

This was and continues to be a major screw up on the part of the MTA. No closure was necessary and the MTA and city let everyone down. NY'ers were abandoned by the MTA.

cassandra777

Oh, and my compliments to the author, and the anonymous MTA worker, who appear to be among the very few who were willing to say that NYC was overreacting.

angry_pickle

Well next time, we will all listen to you against all others if you promise to perform harakiri in the event that you are wrong. Deal?

cassandra777

My curse is that no ever listens to my warnings:)

hc792

People talking here are morons. Imagine if the storm had held together and not disintegrate at the last moment? The subway could be underwater right now. Would it still be an overreaction. Who knew New Yorkers could be so idiotic. You should be effing thankful.

cassandra777

It was clear YESTERDAY morning that by the time the storm got to NYC it was going to be little more than a tropical storm and that giant waves crashing down Wall Street and over Battery Park submerging whole subway stations were a figment of TWC's fevered imagination.

Thankful for what? That almost 400,000 people were ordered out of their homes for what has amounted to a heavy rainstorm? That panic was created? That money was spent to house 70,000 'refugees' from the storm when only 2000 showed up? Give me a break.

hc792

Why the fuck is it always about money with you idiots?

What an inconvenience, that for one freaking weekend, you can't ride the subway or go to work. A panic was created because a cat 1 storm was predicted to hit NYC with 80mph sustained surface. What blasphemy!

The storm is unique that it had cat 3 barometric pressure, but slow winds. Something was going to give. The storm would increase massivlet in size, or the winds would decrease rapidly. It turned out, that the storm had increased greatly in sized. This in turn, prevented the winds from strengthening despite the low pressure of the system. Thus, flooding rains and small winds. Forecasting this was extremely tricky for meteorologists, but this definitely had the potential to be a catastrophic storm. Just one factor and it would have been a catastrophe.

A little research goes a long way sweetie.

cassandra777

I did my research sweetie, instead of listening to the news coverage I looked at the weather data. Thats how I knew yesterday that by the time the storm got to NYC there wasn't going to be any catastrophic flooding or winds.

Richard

You Knew? then take a look at the pix of the flooded tracks, and know you were wrong

hc792

And you knew this yesterday? And when was the evacuation ordered?

And even still, yesterday morning it was projected as a strong cat 1 - weak cat 2. It turned out to be a TS and yet, look at the amount of storm surge it created.

Look up the term, "better safe than sorry" twit.

Guest

Geez you are a wuss.

cassandra777

There should have never been a mandatory evacuation ordered, it was utter hysteria, based on worst case predictions, not on what was most likely to happen, and this was true even on Friday night.

And in terms of money, surely there are better ways to spend money than on non existant threats with a 10% chance of materializing, that disrupt people's lives and only have the benefit of Mike Bloomberg not getting blamed for not doing enough.

Better safe than sorry is no way to run a government.

Matt

"And in terms of money, surely there are better ways to spend money than on non existant threats with a 10% chance of materializing"

You don't read what you write, do you.

hc792

And guess what? The city will return to normal on Monday.

Disrupting people's lives? Oh how tragic and blasphemous! You always prepare for the worst. But sometimes mother nature changes her mind. It happens.

cassandra777

Oh well, okay, if everything is going to return to normal then I guess we should start evacuating for all the storms that "might" cause flooding and indeed, we should always prepare for the absolute worst case scenario, no matter how unlikely, because hey, it will all return to normal anyway.

As a matter of fact, we should probably bring back the armed guards on the streets in case of a terrorist attack, because, hey, better safe than sorry.

God how pathetic.

Erica Martirano

You're possibly the dumbest person alive. I really believe that. Do me a favor and go turn on the news and take a peek at the flooding in Sheepshead Bay, Babylon, Long Beach, Westchester...and then tell me that it was overreaction. WE GOT FLOODED. Unless that fucking water in my basement is a figure of my imagination.

cassandra777

Jesus Christ when did New Yorkers become such a bunch of babies. It floods when it rains, duh. So, I guess, we need to shut down the MTA every time it rains, then, ya know, juist as a precaution.

hc792

Oh, god you actually took that phrase and applied it literally.

No matter how unlikely? LMAO. Did you JUST start following the storm yesterday?

How did you pass high school? Fucking twit.

cassandra777

Oooh, name calling, good comeback. LOL.

hc792

That's all?

cassandra777

Is it still "too early" to say that NYC vastly overreacted and wasted a ton of money taking precautions that were not needed?

Gadea

#1 sign this storm was not going to be bad for NYC, Bloomberg stayed. If it was going to be a bad storm he would of fled like he did the last time.

Bloomberg was vacationing on an island when I was ice skating on Manhattan streets because there was zero city prep for an ice freezing blizzard. In my 50 years living in Manhattan I have never witnessed a mayor not prep Manhattan for a blizzard, until this fool Bloomberg. Now he turns off my building elevators for what literally turned out to be just a rainy day. Let me tell you I have nearly killed myself going up and down twenty flights of slippery stairs!

Bloomberg is the first mayor to put my life in danger, twice, from storm mismanagement. I want nothing to do with the Bloomberg administration or the kiss-up City Council. That means neither Kelly nor Quinn get my vote when the time comes to pick a new mayor.

Inspector Spacetime

If you've been in Manhattan for 50 years and that's your standard for threat, your memory must be going. Lindsay threatened your life almost on a monthly basis, with his inability to control costs and stand up to the unions. Around 15 people died during a snowstorm on his watch. He left Queens to hang for a week without snow plowing. There were riots that he bungled. But worst of all, he was absolutely clueless about New York's fast-declining manufacturing role, and made no serious plans or strategies about how to diversify or husband the economy. Nothing could have stopped the collapse of manufacturing in New York City. No other event in modern NYC history has caused more systemic harm, and he was in a place to work on mitigation strategies - and did not.

Beame bungled the big blackout, the Son of Sam dragnet, and of course the city's worst fiscal crisis.I have relatives who've also been living in Manhattan for 50 years. They were told to evacuate because they planned to cut power to protect equipment from being flooded, so they left. They did not risk their lives walking up flights and flights of slippery stairs; they did not have to. Chances are you had a choice too, but chose not to listen to instructions or avail yourself of plausible options. I'd rather they game the 20% chance of billions of losses than just roll the dice. I'm not a bloomberg fan, but he did the right thing here.

pvbklyn

So who is this guy? Retired from the MTA? Yeah. What was his position? If he's retired why doesn't he come forward. I'm a retired manager from the MTA, but I was never in operations so I have no idea whether this is a good idea or a bad idea. Of course it's bad that no one can get anywhere, but outside of that how could I say? So come forward Mr. It's a bad idea and tell us what your expertise might be that you could just say whatever. Unless the Gothamist is bullshitting us and just wants to stir controversy and grind an axe. . . Hey I've got water coming in my windows & my ceiling. That's my catastrophe.

Gregorama

Come now, come now...we're going to run the risk of having the tide (literally?) sway back to Bloomberg on this one, getting the rank and file all riled to think (rightfully so?) that the "poor guy just can't win!" He's either asleep at the wheel, or barrelling at us in a Sanitation dumpster at 95MPH, saying "GET READY NOW!" Is the common saw, 'Better safe than sorry," still the acceptable axiom in times such as these? I'm hardly a fan of much of his administration's decisions (especially during this dreadful, unneeded third 'vanity' term, which I have no doubt he mightily regrets fighting so hard to get in the first place). I dunno....it's still the middle of the night with the worst still to come--but to this Manhattanite, I think it's mighty sage thinking to just HALT EVERYTHING, so that when the drops settle, we'll atleast have something of a blank starting page on Monday....or Tuesday....or..... My vote goes with MB on this plan of action (so far...and that is NOT my final answer!). This is his "vendetta di sangue" for December 27, and you can bet he is not going to let this one fall apart, essentially becoming his final, most disastrous legacy as Mayor of New York.

The Gaf

The truth isn't that the Mayor overreacted, its that the hurricane didn't get here fast enough for our NYC attention span. "OMG? Won't happen for another day?? I'm bored."

Pedro Velez

Great article on the overreaction to "Hype-icane" Irene. http://www.startribune.com/blo...

nycguy123

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nycguy123

Bloomberg's over reaction over Summer Storm Irene has caused more inconvenience than his under reaction about the blizzard last year. Shutting the transit system? Evacuations? The National Weather service is reporting this as heavy rain, moderate winds. The fact that the Mayor is spending tax payer money on these preparations is ridiculous.

Micheal

I'm no fan of the mayor, but the hurricane hasn't even gotten here yet.

cassandra777

How was anyone going to drown in the subway when there hasn't been any flooding and its 7:30? They could have closed everything down at 5pm and still, there would have been no flooding, because um, there hasn't been any flooding so far 7+ hours after the first wholesale public transportation shutdown in city history.

redbloodedcupcake

Please scroll up and read the many comments responding to this argument. I'll recap: it takes a long time (a quoted 8 hours) to completely shut down the MTA. The MTA has many human workers that also need to reach safety. The worst of the storm hasn't yet hit-no one knows on what scale the flooding will take place.

cassandra777

Eight hours to shut down the subway? I doubt it. I know MTA is incompetant, but I suspect even they could shut everthing down in under 4 hours.

And again, its now almost 8pm and there is NO SAFETY HAZARD that anyone at the MTA has yet faced, because there isn't even any wind let alone any flooding.

I can't believe people have bought into this nonsense. Maybe, maybe it was prudent to evacuate the Jersey Shore, at least there are expected to be winds 80+ that far south. But, Lower Manhattan, I'll believe it when I see it.

pvbklyn

Because you can comment that makes you an expert in NYC Transit management? You should contemplate how stupid your comment is.

nupark

God, you're an idiot. Do you have any idea what you're talking about, or are you just pulling "4 hours" out of a hat?

A really, really stupid hat.

redbloodedcupcake

I'm not a transit official so I can't verify how long it takes; glad to see you have some expertise in the matter with your quote of 4 hours. Lower Manhattan, well, it's a low-lying area and the worst of the storm has yet to hit. Sorry you're being inconvenienced for a day or so. You'll live! And, MTA workers included, so can everyone else. :)

darrylayo

Ironic that your name is "Cassandra," yet you are the one who ignores warnings of danger.

Sluggo1407

I can understand shutting down the subways at noon in light of the preparation they have to contend with. However, they could have left the buses running until 6:00pm so people had a chance to get home.

Pedro Velez

Red there you go, not even stopping at 5 or 6 you jump all the way to 10. Electrocution or drowning? I never said don't close the system, I question whether the officials made a sound judgment or whether the memory of the snowstorm is still in their minds.

redbloodedcupcake

Yeah, maybe some people just get knocked unconscious, dehydrated, put into diabetic shock, paralyzed, for however long it takes first responders to get to them. They'll be fine; it's just a 5 or a 6!

Pedro Velez

Accountant now, NYPD 1984-2004. Profession really doesn't have anything to do with it. I'm not talking about the specific logistics of shutting down the system, obviously only transit officials would know that.

sfnyc

You cannot be serious with that reply. I can only shake my head. Utterly ridiculous.

Pedro Velez

Yes, seriously. I haven't seen anyone yet who defends the shutdown give any concrete reasons for it other than their own "feelings" as to what "may" happen. The point is you start to set bad precedents and before you know it you're shutting the system down for every "what-if". I don't or have never proposed to know more than transit officials. By the way, easy on the" trained professionals" stuff...on any other day those same "trained professionals" are usually called every curse-word in the book. But today we're scared so we're calling them "trained professionals".

Pedro Velez

First we're already on Weekend/Holiday schedule so there is a much smaller complement of trains and buses on the road. I'm not sure what people think is involved with shutting the system down. EIGHT HOURS?!?, come on! Trains would be put out of service at their terminal points, PD is, no doubt, already on full manpower as is every other critical municipal agency. Folks, exercise a little common sense and stop letting every politician/city official act like they're your daddy and they know what's best for you. Remember, daddy was probably wrong half the time as well.

Micheal

Minus 5 points for introducing a slightly creepy Ron Paul vibe into a story about weather.

redbloodedcupcake

Well, when it's people's lives on the line (passengers, MTA workers, etc), I think common sense would say that no one (even you Mr. Velez) knows what's going to happen, and it's best to make sure that everyone can get to a safe place instead of leaving people literally underground to potentially be electrocuted or drowned to death. An inconvenience, sure, but no one's job is worth his or her life. But silly me, that's just my common sense!

sfnyc

It's not about "me". They know what's best for the system. Look up what happened in 1992. Another one who thinks he knows more than trained professionals. Pedro, what is your profession exactly?

The Gaf

Im ok with overreaction. Not ok with underreaction. See Katrina, Snowstorm of this year, etc etc...

Dorothyellen Whitsell

Even if this seems to be an overreaction, 10% of the hurricane hitting is still a good little chunk of chance, and if it does not hit, this seeming over-preparation will be an excellent experience for future reference.

Mr Mel

Worst case scenario: the hurricane is not as fierce as predicted. The next time it happens nobody pays attention to the evacuation thing.

groganz

The blizzard and the hurricane are apples and oranges. During the blizzard, the city tried to cut corners on what should have been a routine cleanup, using the holiday season as an excuse. Snow was piled up haphazardly and trash in some areas wasn't picked up for two weeks. Bloomberg was rightly ridiculed for his flippant 'let them eat cake' attitude about the whole thing. "But I don't see any snow outside the gates of my mansion!" Gee, you think? How quickly people forget history.

And now, instead of taking a rational, measured response based on the available data, and updating this response as the data changes, the city has rushed into an unprecedented shutdown, even though by this morning it was clear the dire predictions wouldn't pan out. At this point it's all emergency theater.

Mike_Disqus

Bloomberg doesn't have gates outside his Upper East Side Mansion. Everyone forgets the snow storm wasn't predicted to be as bad as it was, and that made the Sanitation crews' travel to work difficult, if not impossible. For those of you who live and die by car, yes, it was a challenge to drive...Life went on in the City...

DannyEastVillage

My understanding is that the shut-down was undertaken to prevent damage to infrastructure. I'm a nurse by profession--not versed in the technologies that constitute the infrastructure of the subway system. But I remember a Nor'easter in '91 in which water was up to the level of the platforms in some stations--and that wasn't nearly the amount of water forecast to affect the city in the next 23 hours--including the rain, storm surge and the high tide. And I know the technologies operating in the system now are a lot different from those in 1991. i'd much rather the city's decision-makers protect expensive hi-tech equipment than listen to the back-seat belly-achers posting here.

dmichaelk

What is with this website? Who the hell made this MTA worker an expert on everything? It's called responsible reporting, and if you can't handle it, shut down.

nntogo

Wow Ben! You really got the big scoop, calling your grandfather (a retired MTA janitor) and asking your "insider" what he thought about the whole situation. I understand the story took a while to get together, because he kept falling asleep during your conversation.

cassandra777

Don't they get the weather channel? I can go online and see that the max winds for this area are 40-50 mph and that isn't even a certainty. This is CYA government in action.

G M

Don't you have a web browser? The weather channel's interactive hurricane tracker is still predicting +74 mph winds for NYC. Also everyone is worried about the storm surge combined with the tides, as a result of the geography of the area. It's theorized that Long Island will funnel water towards the city. This is you being a moron.

wigguynyc

And that's bad how? You would rather the city was destroyed or that the city opened itself up for liability by not doing anything when they were advised of a catastrophic weather condition heading for the city?

reztek

Well being in D.C. now in the heart of the storm its doing nothing but raining.. dooms day delayed yet again..

Micheal

You do realize that rain can cause a whole lot of damage, don't you?

reztek

Spring rain in D.C. is worse than this and the only damage we get is trees blossoming and flowers blooming

Maria Carreon

I have lived in the same apartment in Brooklyn for more than ten years and it has never, ever flooded until now. So don't tell me anything about how it's "just a little rain." So sick of you damn skeptics and know-it-alls.

reztek

Who but anyone but you are using the words "just a little rain" And your sick of the who's and who???

Maria Carreon

You're kind of an asshole aren't you? Good luck with that.

reztek

Thank you and best of luck to you too.. Next time read what people write before you attack them with your non-sense..

groganz

Well, just to keep it real, you guys aren't directly in the path of the worst parts.

Carter Berger

The storm surge is due to hit the Chesapeake at 2 a.m. Why don't you people read something before you make these idiotic pronouncements?

reztek

Just stating a fact at 6:07 pm aint doing nothing but raining as for your 2 am surge get back to me on that..please..

Guest

How much money is anyone willing to put down that maybe the TWU had something to do with the trains shutting down by noon today (meaning the workers would be off on or around 8pm)? Hmm? Anyone?

pvbklyn

Perhaps you'd like to volunteer your services to shut down the system. Any volunteers out there? Hey volunteers? . . . I didn't think so. So STFU.