Gov. Cathy Hochul announced Saturday morning that trains and buses operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have returned to normal weekend service after torrential rains flooded stations and roads across the New York City area.
Rain caused major disruptions to mass transit service in the Capital Region on Friday, disrupting subway service and halting Metro-North trains between Manhattan and the Bronx.
Public schools remained open all day, workers braved the morning rush hour, and the disruption disrupted morning and evening commutes. It was around noon Friday when the mayor told residents to stay home or “shelter in place.”
“When MTA trains and buses stop, the city stops. A complete stop, that’s the result,” Hochul said at a Manhattan press conference Saturday morning.
MTA Chairman and CEO Jano Lieber said in a press conference with Hochul that the subway was back in “full service” by 8:30 Friday night. Despite footage of flooded roads and submerged cars, buses remained 99% operational.
Friday’s rainfall set an all-time record with more than 8 inches of rain falling in a single day at JFK Airport, according to National Weather Service statistics. This exceeds the airport’s previous record since August 2011.
Lieber said that while delays were widespread throughout the subway, “there was only one station where the water reached platform level.”
“That wasn’t the case with Hurricane Ida,” he added.
The Adams administration has been criticized by some residents who say the mayor’s response has been slow as record-breaking rains have hit parts of the city. Adams doubled down on the backlash against such characterizations in a radio interview Friday night, saying, “If anyone was caught off guard, they’d be living under a rock.”
“We’ve done a lot to prepare New Yorkers since Ida,” Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iskol told WNYC Saturday morning, adding that there were no confirmed deaths from the storm. There were at least 13 cases attributed to the aftermath of Ida.
Asked specifically about criticism that the Adams administration missed the wave of the storm, Iskol said the city issued a travel advisory on Thursday and made some preparations in advance.
“We are doing everything in our power to make sure the correct information is made available to the public,” Iscol told WNYC.
For real-time updates on specific trains and buses, Check the MTA site.