Long Island learns from storm
Passengers headed to Ronkonkoma wait for a track announcement on Tuesday at Penn Station. Credit: Sally Morrow
What should we expect when the weather turns treacherous, from road crews and railroads and police and EMS workers? What kind of communication, and action?
And what can be expected of us?
Looking at this week's storm it's fair to say that, with a few exceptions, snow-clearing on Long Island roads went quite well. Treated to televised visions of New York City struggling like an upside-down turtle, it's hard to complain.
The Long Island Rail Road shut down for almost 24 hours, then limited service for 36 hours. The line wisely stopped running rather than risk stranding passengers between stations. It learned a valuable lesson after a train got stuck during a storm last December. But a glitch Tuesday causing signs and recordings to promise nonexistent trains was bad, and shutting down the information system to stop the problem didn't help.
And the LIRR could have done a better job Tuesday communicating that with only four lines running, and those on a holiday schedule, seats would be scarcer than commuters might guess.
What can be expected of us in a terrible storm? That we stay home if at all possible. That we not think we're the exception, so important we must travel, so tough nothing bad can befall us.
Long Islanders, the LIRR and the municipalities and counties all did pretty well. All could do better, and next time, one hopes, we will. hN
