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Storms betray city’s fragile infrastructure Subways and roads couldn’t handle the rain BY BRIAN PASCUS
aged goods stored in basements. Many of the Sandy-inspired imhe brutal one-two punch provements were targeted at coastof Henri and Ida exposed al areas affected by the storm surge, how unprepared New York whereas the type of torrential rains City’s infrastructure is for Ida dropped can hit anywhere. And increasingly frequent extreme- even the coastal improvements are not likely to be sustainable, experts weather events. The remnants of Hurricane Ida say. One expert said climate-proofing the city’s water-evacdumped more than 7 uation infrastructure inches of rain on the city would cost in the hunSept. 2, 10 days after tropdreds of billions of dolical storm Henri had lars. drenched the city with 7 AMOUNT SPENT “These rain events inches of rain, a then-reon upgrades to have been called 500cord amount, on Aug. 21 the city’s sewer year events. They are and 22. Ida shut down the system after now 500-hour events,” subway system, flooded Superstorm said Eddie Bautista, excity streets, turned the Sandy ecutive director of the Brooklyn-Queens ExNew York City Environpressway into a river and killed at least 13 New Yorkers, most mental Justice Alliance, an advocaof whom were trapped in flooded cy group. “Talk about wakeup calls.” In fact, storms such as Sandy, basement apartments. The aftermath laid bare the Henri and Ida were once thought of shortcomings that remain for the as once-every-thousand-year occity’s subway and stormwater sys- currences before human fossil-fuel tems in facing the climate crisis, de- activity began warming the planet, spite more than $6 billion in im- said Michael Mann, professor of atprovements following Superstorm mospheric science at Penn State Sandy in 2012. As of press time Fri- University. But additional atmoday, several train routes were still spheric changes brought on by closed or suspended, and shop owners continued to clean up damSee FLOODED on page 26
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