This video was just released.
That's seawater, pushed in from the storm surge.
It's ripped out sections of walls. It has soaked most of the equipment. If you go to the MTA's website there are pictures of washed-out tracks. Every inch of the 600 mile subway system has to be checked, and a bunch of the rails have to be pulled up and either processed or replaced.
It's bad. The MTA agrees.
“Our transportation system has never faced a disaster as devastating Hurricane Sandy, which has caused an unparalleled level of damage,” said MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota after inspecting many of the hardest-hit areas. “The challenge that we face now is one of assessment, inspection, repair, and restoration. This will not be a short process, but it will be one that puts safety as its major focus.”
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It is too early to say how long it will take to restore the system to full service. There is a separate process that must be followed for each division. Bridges and Tunnels’ two Rockaway bridges did not suffer any major damage but remain closed due to flooding in the surrounding adjacent roadways and neighborhoods. Water remains in both the Queens Midtown and Hugh L. Carey tunnels. Once water levels subside, the water must be pumped out and the tunnels thoroughly inspected by engineers. Subway trains and buses must be inspected along with 5,600 buses, 6,200 subway cars, 600 miles of tracks and 468 subway stations. Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road must take a close look at hundreds of miles of tracks, switches, railroad crossing and cars and locomotives.
This is will be an exhaustive, time-consuming process with one goal: to restore safe and efficient service to 8.5 million daily MTA customers. It must be noted, however, that this process could have taken much longer had we not taken the pre-emptive measure of suspending all service to safeguard our equipment and prepare facilities to the best of our ability.
Bus service is starting up. It'll be running free of charge on a sunday schedule today, and will be back to normal tomorrow, free of charge.
For those of you without youtube, it's bad. Entire tunnels are flooded, with escalators ascending out of murky water. There's no power, and debris is everywhere.
I think it's going to take longer than a week, folks.
The good news is that the city is coming together. I think this picture says it all:
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