Lyd writes 10 Aug 2007 12:41 pm
On twisters and transit
On Wednesday Brooklyn got nearly 3.5″ of rain in a little more than an hour. An F2 tornado touched down in Bay Ridge. Mass transit was flooded. When I got up around 10:30am and turned on the news, not a single subway line was running normally. As of that moment, I couldn’t get into the city by train. And information on where service was being restored was hard to come by. Buses were overcrowded and stuck in traffic. Many people walked. Fortunately by the time I went to work around 3, things were better and it took my normal ~30min to commute (although the trains were PACKED and there was no A/C on a 94 degree, humid day).
But it raised some serious concerns. In the worst weather, when we most need sheltered, quick transportation, me and many New Yorkers seem to be out of luck in terms of getting around. It brings to mind last year’s MTA strike, when we heard those horror stories of elderly people walking miles in the freezing cold. Our apartment is about 4-5 miles from work, which is certainly walkable, but not as easy under extreme weather conditions. I heard a lot of city officials say “New Yorkers are resilient,” so I guess I just cross my fingers and hope I’m enough of a New Yorker to deal with it when it happens again.