MTA prepping for the deluge

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced the MTA is prepositioning equipment and staff ahead of the anticipated heavy downpours Tuesday.

Staff will work to clear drains in problematic areas ahead of time and optimize mobile pumping units and trucks from the city’s 286 pumping stations. Staff will take the mobile pumping units to low drainage areas when they receive notice of water accumulating in those locations, Lieber said.

They will also check and deploy emergency generators at pumping rooms throughout the city. "If electricity goes down at a key facility, we want to make sure that we have the ability to respond promptly," Lieber said.

Staff will also have chain saws on hand in case expected strong winds knock down trees onto tracks.

The announcement comes days after Saturday’s storm caused flooding on major city roadways and in subway stations.

Lieber said the Court Square station in Queens was “retrospectively inadequately prepared for the amount of water” as rain broke the barriers of an ongoing project and “knocked out” the location “for a mess of hours.”

He did not specify if staff planned to set up pumps at Court Square or specific locations but that they will be “ready to go,” as each borough has its own command center.

Lieber said despite MTA pumping tons of water out of the subway system, it can only do so much because city’s sewer system is overwhelmed.

“Priority number one is getting the water out of the system. We do this every day. 13 million gallons of water are removed every day from the subway system through our pumping infrastructure,” Lieber said. “The problem is that storms are getting more frequent and more intense.”

Lieber encouraged riders to pay attention to weather conditions when using the MTA Tuesday, either by using the TrainTime app, signing up for customized service alerts, or looking at traffic website 511NY.org or MTA social media platforms.

Lieber said the MTA is working to alleviate future incidents by elevating vents that lead onto subway platforms, as well as raising steps that meet the sidewalk at subway entrances at more than 100 locations to prevent “Niagara Falls”-like flooding, as seen recently in social media videos.