Are you Angry? Is THIS how you seal up the NYC SUBWAY from SANDY ?

Hello fellow ATSers

When I was watching NYC making preparations for this MEGA storm on the BBC network I saw workers using ply board sheets to board up a subway entrance I was thinking this must be to prevent people trying to enter the subway. That there must be a proper water tight seal further within the subway complex to prevent water from entering the subway proper. I know London, England Tube Network does not have this as we are not that close to sea level (as NYC) and we have the Thames barrier.

OK?

Well, now we find out the subways are flooded with sea water. So a vast chunk of the travel network is now out of commission for the emergency services to use!

If I was a NYC resident I would be MAD! because this is how they sealed up the subway ..... take a look at the pictures and tell me how this is supposed to keep out a flood?

Imag e 1

This is the video I saw on the BBC. So the water come in through the gap between floor and ply and between ply sheet joints. When it gets to the top of the ply board it goes straight over the top and into the subway. Very clever! Even if they put ply boards across the top its not gonna stop water coming in.

Image 2

Image 3

From this angle I doubt that they attempted to put any boarding across the top.

Image 5

Okay this image show grating across subway entrance I assume after you have gone down the steps into the subway proper. So this is just to prevent people access.

Image 6

So I think you can see the grating at the bottom of the stairs which are closed and locked in image 5. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Image 7

Workers putting the the ply boards.

Image 8

Worker putting ply boards across grating above subway. Any one wanna tell me if water will get in?? LOL! It's a joke guys and gals.

I'm in London, UK, so I don't have any knowledge of the NYC subway. So if any NYC ATS can give this tread some input that would be great. I hope I'm wrong but if I'm right I would be so MAD as NYC had some warning this MEGA storm was coming and could have made a better effort (rant!)

Lastly, can I ask if the trains were taken out of the sub way network or parked up in sub way tunnel least likely to flood.

(Sorry, but did not know how to put these images directly onto this thread and had to use the link function. If any one can put the pics up for me thanks!)

reply to post by RubberDuckGB


You should have jumped on a plane, come over here, volunteered to do it right. It's all your fault the subways flooded....

Des

you couldn't realistically expect them to make the subway system waterproof.
the plywood boards are to keep people out, they can easily pump out all the water that got in,
well much more easily than waterproofing the whole thing.

reply to post by RubberDuckGB


Realistically there is no way to seal off the subways from a deluge like this. The stopgaps they are using is just to slow it down some so as to not overwhelm the sump pumps. A mere 6" of water acting on a sheet of plywood exerts the same force as five full grown men standing on it.

Originally posted by Rikku
you couldn't realistically expect them to make the subway system waterproof.
the plywood boards are to keep people out, they can easily pump out all the water that got in,
well much more easily than waterproofing the whole thing.

Exactly, they only need to slow the flooding enough for the pumps to cope. However if those boards were to collapse they'd really have a problem.

This has happened before right?

Riders were turned away from the Nos. 2 and 3 subway at the 125th Street Station because of flooding from Hurricane Frances on Sept. 8, 2004.

No lessons learnt by MTA.

There is no point in making the Subway watertight - in fact it would do more damage than good . The London tube - notably the Victoria and Jubilee lines are deliberately porous - as is the channel tunnel.

The engineering stuff is the ability to drain the water lower and allow sufficient time for the pumping systems to work.

...actually, having the subway flood probably saved a lot of lives and/or damage.
Water that went UNDER the city was water that didn't go ABOVE the street level.

There are drains under the subway to get the water out. The boards were to keep debris and trash from floating down there as well as keep people out. Can you imagine if homeless people gathered in there to find shelter from the storm only to drown in the flooded waters ? I mean, though there are drains, they don't drain the water THAT fast. Also, think about the rat problem. Maybe they wanted to make sure all the rats drowned and boarded it up to keep them in there. They do carry disease.

your being idealistic!

you honestly think you could of stopped the subway from flooding?

the water had one place to go...thats the base of manhattan....the subway is too vast not to get flooded

theyll need to replace or repair every train....thats`fd ....buy a bike!

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by RubberDuckGB

 

You should have jumped on a plane, come over here, volunteered to do it right. It's all your fault the subways flooded....

Des

I'm surprised the Mayor of New York didn't just blame Canada for this whole mess like he did with the big Blackout that hit the east coast in 2003.