Epic rainfall swamps roads, floods subway stations
A DELUGE of rain Monday turned the region’s subways, roads and airports into a soupy mess — submerging them and snarling the morning rush hour. Central Park recorded 3.28 inches of rain by noon — with more showers forecast for Tuesday, AccuWeather reported.
Commuting chaos hit more than a dozen lines as rain flooded into the transit system, creating waterfalls on subway station platforms and pools of water inside some Long Island Rail Road train cars.
Clogged storm grates at 145th St. in Hamilton Heights sent cataracts of brown water cascading down the stairs to the No. 1 train station.
Rider Josh Guild posted a photo on Twitter of a small pond forming at Broadway and 145th St. as a straphanger duckwalked up the steps and water cascaded down the stairs and into the station.
The flooding became so heavy at the uptown station that northbound No. 1 trains skipped the stop for about hour around 10:30 a.m.
Transit officials insisted the issue was a street-level problem that caused a ripple effect in the subway.
Andy Byford, president of NY Transit, insisted the uptown station flooding was a dramatic exception to an otherwise smooth commute.
“Infrastructure improvements over the years and the recent Subway Action Plan, combined with a renewed focus on customer service, meant that the service impact this morning was relatively minimal and I’m incredibly proud of our workers for moving quickly to help everyone today,” he said.
He did not mention the rainy day service changes and delays on the B, D, E, F, G and M lines. In addition, F and M trains bypassed the 42nd St. station around the same time for about an hour because of the storm.
Another rider tweeted a photo of sheeting rain pouring onto the F train at the 42nd St. station.
“So rain storms are normal underground @bryantparknyc at 42nd st station?!? Wtf will the station collapse on us!?!”