Metro North's Port Jervis line will be closed indefinitely as the MTA addresses what it called catastrophic damage. (Photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority)
By the time I ventured out of Brooklyn on Monday afternoon for the first time since arriving home on Friday night, Irene’s impact within the five boroughs of New York City had largely dissipated. A few neighborhoods are dealing with flood waters and downed trees while others are still waiting for power to be restored. But as dramatic images of flooding in upstate New York and Vermont pour in, New York City remained unscathed.
Of course, since the city emerged from the storm with only a death or two and little long-term damage, many pundits have begun to question our preparedness. Did we have to shutdown the city so completely on Saturday? Was it an overreaction to cut off subway service and shut down mass transit? Why couldn’t meteorologists better predict the weather? It’s typical Monday-morning quarterbacking but this for a natural disaster.
Outside of the city, the storm has been devastating. So far, 40 people have died from it, and that total is expected to rise. The property loss is estimated to be well over $10 billion, and even locally, the MTA announced last night that Port Jervis line will not enjoy Metro-North service for months due to “catastrophic damage” to track beds, bridges and signal system. The railroad will run shuttle buses for now, but they do not anticipate service any time soon. More details are available in a press release, and the photos are breathtaking in their starkness.
Now, even before we knew the full extent of the damage to Metro-North’s westernmost reaches, straphangers were wondering if the MTA overreacted. Why didn’t they run less frequent shorter trains during the storm? Why didn’t they wait to shut down the system until later in the day on Saturday? Why wasn’t it back up and running before yesterday morning? Eventually, these are questions that someone — the MTA, the governor’s office — will likely answer with a report in a few months, but for now, the answer is a simple one.
As the storm bore down on New York City, meteorologists simply couldn’t know that it was going to largely skip over New York City. They couldn’t know that the worst would hit to the north of us. They couldn’t know that the bands of rain would spin out for a bit at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning and that the winds would be worst to the east of us. Even as it appeared as though New York would largely be spared the worst of it, forecasters continue to warn of uncertainty, and as people from the south who are in the regular paths of hurricanes know, it’s better to prepare for the worst than be left unprepared for a big storm.
For the safety of New Yorkers, for the safety of MTA employees and for the safety and security of the subway equipment, shutting down the system was the right decision. Less than a day after the storm passed, the system was up and running with few hiccups, and we could breath easy. We dodged a bullet this time, but it won’t be the last one we face.
19 comments
At the end of the day. They made the right call overall and for the city included. The storm weakened and sped up unexpectedly meaning that all of this could have been a lot worse. Kudos to the MTA for getting it right. No one needed to be running around in that wind.
I truly believe that there has not been a natural disaster that the MTA has handled so well as this storm.
The people who are second guessing would be the exact same people who would have written or said similarly critical pieces from the other end if the MTA had not shut the system down in advance of the storm.
All one needs to do is imagine dozens upon dozen of subway cars underwater at the Coney Island yard, or a Metro-North train stranded on the Port Jervis line near washed out tracks.
Beyond all that, by shutting the system down, it took away transportation from millions of people forcing them to be in the safest place possible for most during a story- their own home.
I would bet that this winter, if a major snow storm is coming our way, the MTA will do this again. And so they should.
The meteorologists were actually correct this time – Irene was a direct hit on New York City. It was the metro region’s great fortune that the storm had diminished significantly by Sunday morning.
It wasn’t just the diminishment that saved the city. The worst damage from Irene was from downed trees/power lines and stream/river flooding, neither of which are a big issue in the city proper as compared to the burbs and beyond. Manhattan has few opportunities for disruptive tree falls and almost no exposed utilities. The outer boroughs do have greater opportunities to lose trees and power, but less so than the leafier suburbs and rural stretches. As for flooding (NOT the coastal type) the city has a small water shed and most of it is pretty impermeable which allows heavy rainfall to be dumped off into the rivers which do not rise as a result of rainfall. Ponding of water and infiltration into the tunnels is of course a problem but much less so than rural areas where streams jump their banks and erode out whatever is next to them.
NYC’s devastating storm would require higher winds (to damage buildings) and greater coastal flooding which would deal a knock out blow if it were to surge above a certain level and inundate the subterranean infrastructure essential to the city. Fortunately THOSE level storms are even rarer than Irene or large noreasters but still a real threat over time.
I disagree. Was no need to cease bus service [except to save money and for the Big Government statists to show who is in control?]. That would have provided an option for those needing to get around.
And if operating buses were really dangerous, how was it safe to allow taxis/car services/private vehicles to operate? And which the city/mta even encouraged with their sharing and no toll arrangements.
Right, because there’s absolutely no way that the larger surface area of a BUS would catch the wind more than the lower profile taxis and cars.
Conditions were potentially dangerous for about 6 hours, not the ~30 hours they shut everything down. They should have run buses along major arteries in Manhattan and other upland areas of the outer boroughs in all but the most dangerous parts of the weekend. Tons of people were traveling around Manhattan on Saturday and Sunday, they just all had to take cabs (and cabbies were taking advantage of the situation, despite that flat fare plan).
It seems that they shut everything down for the sake of simplicity, and for the sake of striking fear in the hearts of the non-compliant Zone A residents. If you tell people there are a couple services still running, it causes confusion and suddenly makes the storm feel like it’s not a big deal. But that mentality is a little condescending, so I can understand the backlash. If you lived in an unaffected non-floodprone area and the bus route down your block was cutoff to make a political point rather than because of an actual operational reason, you have reason to feel a little slighted.
Shutting the system down was not just to protect riders, they needed the time to assess the system for potential problems and prepare for them, to store the trains and buses at safe locations, etc. That’s why they needed so much time.
Yeah right – after all, we read about all the empty 53 foot cargo trailers and 40 foot shipping containers blown over and about. And all the mta buses blown over and about while they were sitting in their depots. And how that happened in previous actual hurricanes.
I dont understand why you think getting around by bus in the middle of a hurricane is such a necessity.
Also “big government statists”… is that a joke i just didnt get? Keep the government out of my MTA? (which almost kinda makes sense in a funny way)
The track of the storm ended up being pretty similar to that of Hurricane Agnes in 1972, though the overall size of Ireme was larger. You didn’t see the same shutdown 39 years ago, but when you factor in the greater amount of electronics on railcars today, it’s hard to fault the MTA on their decision to get the fleet out of low-lying areas. But in hindsight, they probably could have held off action on scrubbing all bus service a little longer, since the storm began losing force Friday evening after it brushed the coastal area of North Carolina.
Absolutely the right call to make. While I think it was possible to start the shutdown later, why did anyone REALLY need to get anywhere so close to the arrival of what could have been a serious storm? Buses were re-starting by Sunday 4-ish and that could have been started sooner (assuming you had operators camped out at the depot to start the shift).
Sure, I’m not enthused w/ being kept home but taxis (for my friends) and my bike gave me the freedom of mobility that I wanted to enjoy the weekend.
Who gave you or Mayor B. have the right to decide what people REALLY need to be doing or not? Oh that’s right, it’s for my own good, so sit down, shut up and do as I’m told.
Mayor B has the duty and obligation to decide what government agencies should be doing with their employees and equipment in the face of a potentially disastrous storm.
You have the mind-set of certain officials — and many NOLA citizens — in the face of the warnings that preceded Hurricane Katrina.
Amen, the MTA made the right call and Walder rides off to Hong Kong with a good mark on his record. INLAND areas of NYC were spared the worst of the storm, though several coastal areas incurred substantial flooding. And when you lose electricity, incur property damage or have to encounter flooded surroundings, it doesn’t matter what happened across the rest of the city.
That said, I noticed the attitutdes of several cityfolk were rather smug in the aftermath of the storm. They only need look around and what happened in the outlying suburbs to understand the full extent of the storm. Those of us in NYC who incurred little more than stocking up on food and spending a weekend at home should consider ourselves fortunate and lucky.
It was the absolute right call to shut everything down, even in light of things not getting as bad as expected. When you see photos of subway tunnels and yards flooded, trees down on streets and streets flooded, common sense tells you it was a good idea.
As for ‘getting anywhere’ during the storm, it’s absolutely ludicrous. By shutting down the system in anticipation of the damage, they accomplished two things; first they were able to get the system shut down, and secure as much property as possible against storm damage. Can you imagine what the story would be if they KEPT trains in Lenox Yard where they had several feet of water? Second, and much more importantly, it kept people in their homes. People who, if out, may have been stuck on trains and buses as they were during the blizzard, people who could have been trapped in places without adequate resources, or in unsafe conditions, that would have required others to risk their lives unnecessarily to rescue them; that was the whole point of the mandatory Zone A evacuation. And note that many areas that were NOT in evacuation zones flooded as well.
Like the Vermont governor kind of figured out after the fact, what really should bug people is how the media missed the bigger threat Irene posed to the suburbs and rural areas. Fact is, NYC, for all its problems, does have a able infrastructure and institutional predilection for dealing with disaster, and despite some mistakes and even foolish behavior, people generally know how to handle themselves. The further you go from a large metropolitan area, the harder it is to have that framework in place.
Ben, I agree with you on this one.
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Ben, thumbs up to you … perfect editorial!