The New York City subway system has faced many challenges in its more than a century of existence, but now there’s another — torrential rain storms that seem to pop up out of nowhere.
In this edition of “Question Everything,” CBS News New York’s Dick Brennan asks what can be done to keep the subway safe from the next storm?
Commuters frightened of getting trapped underground
Just one nasty rainstorm can put what’s underground underwater, sending people scrambling to safety.
“I’m a subway rider. I mean, that’s how I get to school, that’s how I get around the city,” Upper West Side resident KK Cronin said.
Cronin said she’d rather not go with the flow.
“It’s really scary ’cause when I see a really crazy rain day, I honestly get nervous, like, what if I get stuck in the station and I’m trapped? How do I get out?” she said.
West Side resident Vida Cruz also worries about getting trapped.
“Most of the time, it is frightening ’cause if that happens, you’re just stuck here. I mean, you’re underground, so there’s no way out, really. There’s no emergency exits,” she said.
How the MTA is tackling its underground problem from above
So how can the system withstand the next deluge?
Eric Wilson is the vice president of climate planning at the MTA, but his focus is how to plug the holes in what may be the leakiest basement in the world.
“The idea is to incorporate climate resilience into all of those projects, bit by bit,” he said.
When the subway opened in 1904, nobody could anticipate what the weather would be like some 120 years later.
One way the MTA is trying to prevent stormwaters from flooding the subway system is by elevating vents above street level.
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The idea now is to start sealing things above ground. One way of doing that is with elevated vents.
“[It’s] a little bit higher than the sidewalk,” Wilson said.
Another problem is low curbs, which, as Wilson explained, present a risk of storm water running off from the street onto the sidewalk and into subway entrances. The MTA’s solution, again, is elevation.
“This is part of the reason why we’ve elevated the step,” Wilson said. “You know, you have to step up just a little bit in order to be able to go down into the subway right here. But just this little elevation here is enough to prevent the storm water from flowing down into our subway steps.”
One effort to fight subway flooding is adding steps and platforms to underground station entrances so the water has to rise higher before flowing down the steps.
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According to Wilson, however, much of the flood water comes not from above, but from below.
It seems some stations are actually below the water table, so even without rain, the city is already pumping 10 million gallons of water out each day to the sewer system, and when that backs up, things give out.
What NYC is doing to prepare for the next natural disaster
But what about hurricanes and superstorms like Sandy that clobbered the subways?
The MTA says a storm surge now could be about 4 feet high, but with climate change over the decades, the MTA estimates by 2080, it could be 9.5 feet.
“We’re surrounded by rivers. The Hudson River, the East River,” said Sarah M. Kaufman, director of the New York University Rudin Center for Transportation. “A lot of people forget Manhattan is an island. Long Island, which contains Brooklyn and Queens, is an island. And these water levels are rising every year.”
Kaufman says the city has already been battening down its hatches.
“Here on the East Side, there is a new retractable gate that will activate when the water reaches a certain level in the East River,” she said. “We are building quite a few sponge parks … And basically they can absorb water. And most of the time they are just regular parks, but in the event of a storm, they can help absorb water so that it doesn’t go into homes, businesses and the subway.”
A new retractable gate that will activate when the water reaches a certain level in the East River in an effort to prevent flooding.
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There are also storm doors with bolts, along with flex gates and flood logs.
The MTA has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a resiliency campaign, and, among other things, the MTA is hoping for an upgrade to the city’s sewer system.
But experts say at some point, there’s only so much you can do.
“There’s no silver bullet for climate adaptation. We’re not going to build a giant wall around the city,” Wilson said.
They say since they don’t know when the next torrential rain will happen, they have to be ready for anything.
“Look, we don’t have a choice,” he said. “We must adapt New York City’s subway system so that people can get to where they need to go.”