Hurricane Ida Raises the Question: How Can Cities Keep Subways Safe in an Era of Climate Crisis Flooding?

As the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed over the northeast Wednesday night, dumping a record-shattering 3.15 inches of rain on New York City in a single hour, water began to pour into the city’s subways. The system flooded in 46 locations and the MTA cut service across all lines overnight. Rescue operations had to be carried out to reach those unlucky enough to be caught in at least 15 subway cars stranded by flood waters and hundreds more people were rescued by police from stations. No one was injured, the MTA said. The worst of the storm, which prompted city authorities to issue New York’s first ever flash flood emergency, has passed. But the events of summer 2021 have forced commuters all over the world to reckon with the vulnerability of their underground train systems as the climate crisis makes heavy rains and storm surges more common. Back in July, pedestrians in New York and London shared videos of station entrances almost entirely submerged. Later that same month in the eastern Chinese city of Zhengzhou, subway flooding reached a nightmarish worst-case scenario: hundreds of riders were trapped in cars as waters rose around them. Fourteen people drowned. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Public transit agencies from New York to Tokyo have undertaken massive and expensive projects in recent years to make their systems more waterproof, says Singdha Garg, head of adaptation research and performance at C40, a coalition of cities focused on the clima...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change healthscienceclimate Source Type: news