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Subways to stop running in NYC ahead of Irene
Source: Agencies |
August 27, 2011, Saturday
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AMERICA'S biggest subway system was ordered shut down as Hurricane Irene bore down yesterday, potentially paralyzing movement for millions of carless people even as more than 300,000 were told to evacuate to safer places.
The unprecedented orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which affect New Yorkers from Manhattan out to the beaches of Brooklyn and Queens, dealt the congested metropolis a formidable logistical challenge that raised more questions than it resolved:
Where are all of those people in New York's flood-prone areas supposed to go? And, more pointedly, how are they going to get there - especially since many don't own a car?
Subways, buses and trains in one of the world's largest public transportation systems were to stop running this noon. Bridges and tunnels also could be closed as the storm approaches, clogging traffic in an already congested city.
The city opened nearly 100 shelters with a capacity of 71,000 people.
Many people scoffed at the danger and vowed to ride it out at home.
"How can I get out of Coney Island? What am I going to do? Run with this walker?" said 82-year-old Abe Feinstein, who has lived since the early 1960s on the eighth floor of a building that overlooks the famed Coney Island boardwalk.
Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina today, then roll up the densely-populated East Coast before reaching New York tomorrow. A hurricane warning was issued for the city yesterday afternoon, the first time that's happened since Hurricane Gloria struck in 1985.
If the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter, tree limbs would fall and debris would be tossed around. Streets in southern tip of the city could be under a meter of water, and police readied rescue boats but said they wouldn't go out if conditions were poor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident people would get out of the storm's way.
"We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes," he said. "Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people might die."
Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Construction was stopping throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center were dismantling a crane and securing equipment. Bloomberg said there would be no effect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening the day after the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Sporting events, concerts and even Broadway were going dark.
Bloomberg weathered criticism after a Dec. 26 storm dumped nearly 0.6 meters of snow that seemed to catch officials by surprise. Subway trains, buses and ambulances got stuck in the snow, some for hours, and streets were impassable for days. Bloomberg ultimately called it an "inadequate and unacceptable" response.
This time officials weren't taking any chances. Transit officials said they can't run once sustained winds reach 62 kph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety.
The subway system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. Even on a dry day, about 200 pump rooms remove between up to 56 million liters of water that seeps into the tunnels deep underground.
There are about 1.6 million people in Manhattan and about 6.8 million in the city's other four boroughs.
Bloomberg warned residents not to be fooled by the sunny weather yesterday and said police officers would use loudspeakers on patrol vehicles to spread the word about the evacuation.
At the Red Hook Lobster Pound facing the New York Harbor, owner Ralph Gorham had about US$26,000 worth of lobster stored in a refrigerator, plus a tank filled with live crustaceans from Maine. "I'm staying," he said. "But if we get, say, a few feet of water in here, it'll be a huge loss."
The city's public transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday, and the entire system has never before been halted because of natural disaster. It was seriously hobbled by an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. And it was shut down after the Sept. 11, 20001 attacks and during a 2005 strike.
"It's possible to evacuate without going very far," said John Nielsen-Gammon, a Texas A&M University meteorologist who has been involved in disaster planning in his role as the state climatologist. "The big wild card for New York is the fact that nobody there is used to a hurricane and can't rely on common sense or past experience as a guide. And what we learned from evacuations in Houston is that people rely on their friends and their own experience as much as, or more than, they rely on public officials."
The unprecedented orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which affect New Yorkers from Manhattan out to the beaches of Brooklyn and Queens, dealt the congested metropolis a formidable logistical challenge that raised more questions than it resolved:
Where are all of those people in New York's flood-prone areas supposed to go? And, more pointedly, how are they going to get there - especially since many don't own a car?
Subways, buses and trains in one of the world's largest public transportation systems were to stop running this noon. Bridges and tunnels also could be closed as the storm approaches, clogging traffic in an already congested city.
The city opened nearly 100 shelters with a capacity of 71,000 people.
Many people scoffed at the danger and vowed to ride it out at home.
"How can I get out of Coney Island? What am I going to do? Run with this walker?" said 82-year-old Abe Feinstein, who has lived since the early 1960s on the eighth floor of a building that overlooks the famed Coney Island boardwalk.
Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina today, then roll up the densely-populated East Coast before reaching New York tomorrow. A hurricane warning was issued for the city yesterday afternoon, the first time that's happened since Hurricane Gloria struck in 1985.
If the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter, tree limbs would fall and debris would be tossed around. Streets in southern tip of the city could be under a meter of water, and police readied rescue boats but said they wouldn't go out if conditions were poor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident people would get out of the storm's way.
"We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes," he said. "Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people might die."
Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Construction was stopping throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center were dismantling a crane and securing equipment. Bloomberg said there would be no effect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening the day after the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Sporting events, concerts and even Broadway were going dark.
Bloomberg weathered criticism after a Dec. 26 storm dumped nearly 0.6 meters of snow that seemed to catch officials by surprise. Subway trains, buses and ambulances got stuck in the snow, some for hours, and streets were impassable for days. Bloomberg ultimately called it an "inadequate and unacceptable" response.
This time officials weren't taking any chances. Transit officials said they can't run once sustained winds reach 62 kph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety.
The subway system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. Even on a dry day, about 200 pump rooms remove between up to 56 million liters of water that seeps into the tunnels deep underground.
There are about 1.6 million people in Manhattan and about 6.8 million in the city's other four boroughs.
Bloomberg warned residents not to be fooled by the sunny weather yesterday and said police officers would use loudspeakers on patrol vehicles to spread the word about the evacuation.
At the Red Hook Lobster Pound facing the New York Harbor, owner Ralph Gorham had about US$26,000 worth of lobster stored in a refrigerator, plus a tank filled with live crustaceans from Maine. "I'm staying," he said. "But if we get, say, a few feet of water in here, it'll be a huge loss."
The city's public transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday, and the entire system has never before been halted because of natural disaster. It was seriously hobbled by an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. And it was shut down after the Sept. 11, 20001 attacks and during a 2005 strike.
"It's possible to evacuate without going very far," said John Nielsen-Gammon, a Texas A&M University meteorologist who has been involved in disaster planning in his role as the state climatologist. "The big wild card for New York is the fact that nobody there is used to a hurricane and can't rely on common sense or past experience as a guide. And what we learned from evacuations in Houston is that people rely on their friends and their own experience as much as, or more than, they rely on public officials."
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