By VERENA DOBNIK and DAVID CARUSO
NEW YORK –
A torrential downpour sent water surging through New York’s subway system
and highway tunnels and across airport runways Wednesday, leaving
thousands of commuters stranded and one big question: How could 3
inches of rain bring the nation’s largest mass transit system to a halt.
The
storm, which also spawned a rare tornado, hit just before dawn. By rush
hour, the subway system was virtually paralyzed when pumping stations
became overwhelmed. Bedlam resulted from too much rain, too fast; some
suburban commuters spent a half day just getting to work.
“One
big rain and it all falls apart,” said Ruby Russell, 64, as she sat
waiting on a train in Brooklyn. She had been trying to get to Manhattan
for three hours.
The failure renewed a debate about whether the
network of pumps, sewers and drains that protects the city’s subways
from flooding needs an overhaul. Every line experienced some sort of
delay as track beds turned into streams gurgling with millions of
gallons of rainwater. The washout was the third time in seven months
that the subways were disrupted by rain.
Metropolitan Transit
Authority engineers were asked to report back to Gov. Eliot Spitzer
within 30 days with suggestions about how to deal with the chronic
flooding.
“We have a design issue that we need to think about,” Spitzer said.
The
National Weather Service said a tropical air mass dumped an
extraordinary amount of rain in a short period of time. The worst was
recorded between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., with 2.5 inches falling on Central
Park and almost 3.5 on Kennedy International Airport.
Naturally,
the stormwater sought the low ground, and that meant the subways. Water
poured in through vents, drowned the signal system and flooded the
third rail, forcing a shutoff of power on some lines.
MTA
Executive Director Elliot G. Sander said the intensity of the rain was
simply overwhelming. The subway’s drainage system can generally handle
a maximum of 1.5 inches of rainfall per hour.
“The timing and intensity of the storm took us by surprise,” Sander said.
The
subway problems come as weather experts predict New York is due for a
major hurricane. A storm with 130 mph winds and a 30-foot storm surge
could cause the Hudson and East rivers to overflow – and bring with it
more significant flooding than a severe rainstorm.
Keeping the subway system dry is a challenge, even in regular weather.
On
an average day, hundreds of MTA pumps remove 13 million gallons of
water from the system, which includes several tunnels and stations
below sea level. Much of that water is groundwater that enters from
sources such as streams.
Public officials called for improvements
in the drainage system after a similar rain-related shutdown in 1999,
and the MTA made some changes after another round of paralyzing tunnel
floods in 2004, when the remnants of Hurricane Frances washed out the
subways for hours.
The city’s sewer and stormwater drains can
handle steady rain, “but when it comes to these very intense, high
inch-count rain events, over a short period of time, it is very
difficult,” said Michael Saucier, a spokesman for the city’s Department
of Environmental Protection.
DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd said
the city is spending $300 million per year upgrading its piping systems
and has been gradually building a more robust stormwater drainage
system to replace the old combined sewers that handled wastewater and
rain.
In Manhattan, Times Square was one huge mess Wednesday,
packed with many of the 4 million riders who rely on the subway system
daily. Thousands waited for hours for any means of transportation,
jostling one another to get on the few buses that arrived. The suburbs
were no better: In Westchester County, hundreds of commuters were
stopped on a Metro-North train due to track flooding.
Streams of
people in business attire – with briefcases, cell phones and
BlackBerries in hand – trudged through drenched streets toward the
subway. But it, too, was flooded. The hordes then made a beeline for
buses they’d spotted up the street.
The storms also created
problems for the region’s airports, where delays of up to an hour were
reported. The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down in
Brooklyn, where winds downed trees, tore off rooftops and wrapped signs
around posts. At least 40 homes were damaged.
Tornadoes have hit
New York City before, but not often. The National Weather Service had
records of at least five, plus sketchy detail on the last reported
tornado sighting in Brooklyn, in 1889. None was as strong as
Wednesday’s twister, which had winds as high as 135 mph.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Jeffrey Tongue, a Weather Service meteorologist.
A
woman on Staten Island died when a car got stuck in an underpass and
another car came along and hit hers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. A
handful of people were injured, Bloomberg said.
Lanie Mastellone,
who lives in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood, awoke as her roof was
coming off. Before escaping, she ran to get her late husband’s wedding
ring.
“It happened so quick. Maybe he was watching over me,” Mastellone said.
At
the end of the day, some trains were finally back up and running. But
commuters trying to get home were met with another unpleasant surprise:
The storm left behind high humidity that felt like they were walking
into a sauna – and when they got onto train cars, a sardine can.
Associated
Press writers Kiley Armstrong, Samantha Gross, Sara Kugler, Colleen
Long, Karen Matthews and Cristian Salazar contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS the last name of a commuter to Russell, instead of Russel.)
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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