All MTA bridges and tunnels were closed to traffic Monday night because of high winds and elevated water levels, the agency said, as its subway stations and tubes in Lower Manhattan and Queens were slammed with water from the surge brought by Hurricane Sandy.
MTA officials said subway tunnels under the East River had been flooded with seawater, and the agency closed the Queens Midtown Tunnel just after 8:30 p.m. because it was taking on water.
The MTA’s surveillance cameras showed extensive flooding in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (now called the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel) hours after it was ordered closed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Earlier in the day, water was seen coming up to the toll plaza of the Cross Bay Bridge, according to officials.
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz tweeted that there was flooding in stations and tubes in Lower Manhattan and parts of Queens. “Water reaching the platform at Rockaway Park,” he wrote.
On Sunday night, Cuomo ordered the agency to shut down its subways, buses and commuter rail trains across the entire system. Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated today that he didn’t expect service to resume until Wednesday.
An MTA spokesman rejected reports that service would not resume for the remainder of the week, saying there was no timeline yet for when service would return.
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