Did The V Train Forget To Wipe Off Its Feet After Playing Outside Or Something?
See, no one ever answers the bigger question, which is where the mud comes from in the first place:
Major flooding during last week’s subway washout was caused by clogged drains, just like in 2004, a top transit official said yesterday.
The official, who requested anonymity, told the Daily News that the backup occurred even though the drains had been cleared before Wednesday’s downpour.
The power of the torrent from the storm was such that it carried muck and debris into the tunnels, clogging the drains anew and blocking the flow of water to subway pumps.
“There’s mud in the troughs,” the official said. “It wasn’t causing a problem where it was but when water runs in like the Amazon River, now you’ve got a buildup of mud.”
Once workers cleared the drainage systems in the area around 23rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan and Court Square in Queens the flow to pump rooms resumed.
Last week’s flood crippled the entire subway system as did a similar storm in 2004. A 2006 report by the MTA’s inspector general faulted the authority for not keeping its drainage system clear.
The same storm also spawned tornadoes on Staten Island and in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where FEMA, the federal agency that let New Orleans down after Hurricane Katrina, set up shop yesterday.
(Jeez, poor FEMA!)
Posted: August 14th, 2007 | Filed under: Architecture & Infrastructure