Bracing for Hurricane Irene: MTA's doomsday situation is total system closure

The MTA's commit to shut down the city's transit system in anticipation of an on the spot hit from Hurricane Irene begins by pulling service offline a minimum of twelve hours before the storm makes landfall.

An evacuation amount of ten to twelve hours - scheduled throughout daylight - would precede any systemwide shutdown, in step with the MTA's step-by-step hurricane set up, that the Daily News obtained Thursday.

EVACUATION ZONE MAP: realize YOUR HOME

The evacuation amount is meant to permit residents within the danger zone to use the system to escape. It "must be concluded with sufficient time remaining to make sure that every one train crews are going to be able to complete their visits and to achieve a location within which they will safely wait till the storm ends," the set up says.

MTA employees were already making ready yesterday: stockpiling sandbags, clearing drains and repositioning equipment on high ground.

LIVE STORM TRACKER

The agency - criticized throughout the December blizzard for not shutting down, leaving individuals stranded on trains - was readying for an unprecedented total shutdown.

The greatest threat from a hurricane to the nation's biggest transit system is not high winds or blowing debris or perhaps serious rainfall. it is the monster coastal surges that pour water into the tunnels, cutting electricity to the third rail.

The MTA battle set up, created in 2007, however still valid nowadays, says the worst doable situation could be a hurricane creating landfall at Atlantic town, one hundred miles south of the town. Hurricanes spin counter-clockwise, thus a giant storm creating landfall to the south would push a wall of ocean water onto big apple.

Federal scientists say a class two hurricane might drive a 20-foot storm surge into Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. If that's what seems to be looming, the MTA hurricane set up concerns bus service to start to be curtailed a minimum of twelve hours before landfall.

At least eight hours before landfall, the subways would begin shutting down. At "zero hour" - approximately six hours before landfall, when winds reach thirty-nine mph - all rail and bus service would be suspended, the MTA set up says.

Each station are going to be searched to create positive nobody is left behind in an elevator or toilet, and then gates or barricade tape can go up to dam stairways to the road level.

MTA staff are urged to hold a "go bag" with further garments and snacks in case they get stuck with extended tours of duty. The set up identifies various subway tunnels that are sure to flood in a very class one storm, together with under-river tunnels and most lines that run through lower Manhattan and therefore the Rockaways.

A storm crisis center would be originated at forty Sands St. in Brooklyn, where officers can monitor harm and verify when to restart service Monday.

In December 1992, all the subways stopped running for many hours when a nor'easter's 8-foot storm surge flooded a Con Ed station.

hkennedy@nydailynews.com

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Irene Churns Toward the East Coast

Hurricane Irene marched north Thursday once battering the Bahamas, threatening to hammer the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Saturday before raking the jap seaboard on its thanks to ny and New England.

Irene, a class three storm packing a hundred and fifteen mile-per-hour winds as of five p.m. Thursday, may still strengthen, forecasters said. And its projected path hugging the coast may modification, they said, bringing the storm additional inland.

"Any additional deviation to the left may bring direct impact as so much inland because the Washington-Baltimore space," said Bill scan, director of the National Hurricane Center, in a very conference decision with reporters. "The remainder of the jap seaboard is well among the trail of this storm."

Officials within the Bahamas reported power outages, flooding and substantial injury to buildings because the storm moved through. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the storm was concerning two hundred miles east of South Florida.

Irene is predicted to lose some force because it interacts with land and encounters wind shear and cooler waters, said Mr. Read. however it may reach the ny space as a class a pair of storm, with winds around a hundred mph.

It is expected to dump 5 to ten inches of rain throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. as a result of a lot of of the world is already saturated from downpours earlier this year, residents were warned to expect serious flooding.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is getting ready for the storm's aftermath by trucking provides, as well as generators, bottled water and tarps, to staging bases in North Carolina, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

In North Carolina, where Gov. Bev Perdue and President Barack Obama every declared states of emergency, officers began ordering the evacuation of areas as well as the Outer Banks, a long, slim series of barrier islands where the population swells with tourists within the summer, drawn by the beaches and restricted commercialization.

State and native emergency-management agencies are responding to the potential disaster at a time when their funding has been cut considerably, as have budgets for state troopers and alternative departments that are summoned to assist throughout a disaster. North Carolina's emergency-management budget is $3.04 million this year, a thirty eighth decrease from $4.92 million 3 years ago.

But officers say they need custom-made their procedures to accommodate the cuts. they will conjointly count on matching federal greenbacks ought to a disaster occur.

Tourists steadily departed the Outer Banks on Thursday, posting parting shots of the sunny beach on their Facebook pages. At Hatteras Island Pet Resort, owner Andrea Brothers said goodbye to the twelve animals she had been caring for on as their tourist house owners left, and she or he began prepping the kennels to shelter animals once the storm, in case the county shelter desires area on the island.

Ms. Brothers bought a generator and stocked up on Gatorade, cheese sticks and pet food, in preparation for what might be a protracted weekend at her home in Avon on Hatteras Island.

Locals are prepping for the storm to return up the Intracoastal Waterway, doubtless flooding the island and blocking access to bridges to the mainland.

"We're somewhat bit nervous, to be honest," she said. "We absolutely expect to own roads out for a few time."

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell conjointly declared a state of emergency and therefore the Navy's Second Fleet sent warships based mostly in Norfolk out to ocean, where they will higher weather the storm.

Given the likelihood that Irene may strike the nation's capital, federal officers postponed the Sunday dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall.

Mr. Obama was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the event once returning Saturday from vacation on Martha's Vineyard. The president currently has no plans to chop short his vacation.

New Jersey and ny each declared states of emergency Thursday. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie warned residents and tourists to remain far from the shore this weekend.

Long Beach Island, N.J., a set of municipalities on a barrier island concerning 2 hours south of latest York town, issued a voluntary evacuation order Thursday afternoon. The order becomes necessary Friday morning.

In ny town, the mass-transit system may pack up for a lot of of the weekend if Hurricane Irene arrives as is currently predicted, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Jay Walder said Thursday evening.

The transit agency, that runs the city's subways, buses and a number of other commuter trains, cannot guarantee the protection of riders and workers if sustained winds reach higher than thirty-nine miles per hour, Mr. Walder said. Even a weakened Irene would bring winds in way over that speed, creating it seemingly that the MTA can begin shutting down service Saturday morning. There might be lingering delays and repair outages into Monday's morning rush hour.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg—whose credibility took successful together with his administration's sluggish response to a blizzard in December—traveled to a flood-prone space in Queens on Thursday to deliver a comprehensive briefing on the city's hurricane plans.

The mayor said he may decide as early as Friday night whether or not to evacuate New Yorkers in low-lying areas, like Coney Island in Brooklyn. "We haven't got enough data nevertheless to form that decision," he said.

Mr. Bloomberg said the newest reports he had seen showed Irene reaching the ny space on Sunday and presumably hitting Long Island as a class a pair of storm. ny town officers said they expected town to be hit with tropical-storm conditions, that embrace serious rain and winds of thirty-nine mph to seventy three mph.

—Carol E. Lee, Nathan Hodge, Siobhan Hughes and Andrew Grossman contributed to the present

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