Hurricane Sandy and Amtrak.

[Ryan]

That's OK, the shoe will be on the other foot when you have your next earthquake. Or wildfire. Or mudslide...

 

[AlanB]

I find the "unintended consequences" quite interesting. Due to the shutdown, there's no service anywhere on the CL or LSL. I would think the LSL could operate to Albany...the Maple Leaf is doing so. Also, it would seem as though the CL could operate out to Pittsburgh without too much worry. Right now there's no train service from CHI to PGH, ALB, or even CLE. (Pardon me if my abbreviations are wrong.)

No commissary in Albany, no way to restock the cafe & dinner, no way to get new linens to the train, no crew to staff the train. So no LSL.

And besides, a majority of those riding don't want to go to Albany, they want to go to NY & Boston.

 

[CHamilton]

That's OK, the shoe will be on the other foot when you have your next earthquake. Or wildfire. Or mudslide...

Huh! Remind the planners not to invite you to the next west coast Gathering! :lol:

 

[pennyk]

Still hanging in here - wind is as bad as it was during the June Derecho, but instead of being over in a few minutes we're getting hours and hours and hours of it.

Power has flickered twice and outages are starting to pile up - hopefully we'll stay up for a while longer.

my sister in Columbia still has power - for now. she consideres herself lucky. i hope your luck and her luck continues.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

That's OK, the shoe will be on the other foot when you have your next earthquake. Or wildfire. Or mudslide...

Dealt with more than enough of these. Especially fires. I'm in store for a big earthquake though. I was in the air when the Easter 2010 7.2 hit Mexicali, so the Earth owes me one

 

[Ryan]

Still hanging in here - wind is as bad as it was during the June Derecho, but instead of being over in a few minutes we're getting hours and hours and hours of it.

Power has flickered twice and outages are starting to pile up - hopefully we'll stay up for a while longer.

my sister in Columbia still has power - for now. she consideres herself lucky. i hope your luck and her luck continues.

Amen!
If she ends up needing anything, please let me know.

 

[AlanB]

I've still got power here in the city, couple of flickers and the batteries have kicked on twice for a second; but my mom lost power in PA around 5:30 PM today. Winds are whipping around here, but not all that much in the way of rain. All major bridges are closed, that includes the George Washington, Verazanno, Tribrorough, 59th Street, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Tappan Zee, and so on. Only way from the city to NJ right now short of a 2 hour drive north under normal conditions, is the Lincoln Tunnel. The Holland Tunnel is closed, as is the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. Only way to Queens is the Midtown Tunnel.

Smaller bridges between the Bronx & Manhattan remain open as of the last report. Many highways are closed due to flooding or downed trees. The Governor in CT ordered all highways closed several hours ago in his state. No driving except emergency vehicles up in CT.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I've been watching flashes in the night sky as trees go over onto power lines. The lights have flickered, but they are still on here in ALX. Last report I saw was that there are now over 134,000 customers in the DC region without juice. Its raining hard and blowing harder. I think I may have seen a squirrel doing the backstroke in my back yard as it was growing dark. Or maybe it was the two beers I've had.

 

[Ryan]

The Holland Tunnel is closed, as is the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. Only way to Queens is the Midtown Tunnel.

Speaking of the Brooklyn Battery tunnel:



Floodwaters enter Hugh L. Carey Tunnel by MTAPhotos, on Flickr

 

[pennyk]

according to NBC, there was a fatality in Queens - a 30 year old man who was hit by a falling tree.

 

[AlanB]

Two more people died in NJ when a tree fell on a car.

And now the big news, not rail related, both JFK and LGA airports have officially closed. Only Newark remains open, even though there are no flights coming or going at EWR.

The reason for LGA & JFK closing? Water on the runways!

This could be a huge problem as the salt water could knock out all the landing lights and needed stuff for ILS (Instrument Landing System). If that corrosive salt water gets into those lights & cables it could take days before those airports could resume night time operations.

 

[Ryan]

Saw this on the twitter:

Can one of you smart folks tell me where that is?

 

[Gfoley4]

I'm thinking a PATH station maybe?

 

[Guest]

Hoboken PATH

 

[AlanB]

Hoboken PATH

Correct, that is the PATH Station in Hoboken.

It's right on the Hudson River and often floods

 

[Blackwolf]

I think that's security camera footage from the Titanic subway station. I guess that elevator is out of order!

 

[The Davy Crockett]

There are some amazing pictures here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/regional

 

[PRR 60]

Two more people died in NJ when a tree fell on a car.

And now the big news, not rail related, both JFK and LGA airports have officially closed. Only Newark remains open, even though there are no flights coming or going at EWR.

The reason for LGA & JFK closing? Water on the runways!

This could be a huge problem as the salt water could knock out all the landing lights and needed stuff for ILS (Instrument Landing System). If that corrosive salt water gets into those lights & cables it could take days before those airports could resume night time operations.

EWR has closed as well.

 

[AlanB]

Current reports now say EWR just closed too.

Midtown Tunnel also just closed. There is now no way to go east from Manhattan to the Island of Long Island, which includes Queens & Brooklyn. Also cannot go to the Bronx either. Everyone on Long Island island, and Staten Island are now trapped with no way off the islands.

They're reporting 2 to 3 feet of water already in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

Only way to get off Manhattan now is Lincoln Tunnel to NJ and a few small bridges to the Bronx from Upper Manhattan.

 

[Texan Eagle]

Saw some incredible pictures being shared on Twitter and Instagram. Two samples-

Entire Lower Manhattan in the dark after lights go out

While everything else has gone dark, Empire State Building shines bright!

 

[AlanB]

Saw some incredible pictures being shared on Twitter and Instagram. Two samples-

Entire Lower Manhattan in the dark after lights go out

While everything else has gone dark, Empire State Building shines bright!

They did that to protect the underground power cables & transformers. They turned off power from basically 34th Street south deliberately to protect equipment.

There are reports of cars floating on 20th Street & Avenue C, also known in the past as Alphabet City.

 

[CHamilton]

Alan, it's more than that.

250,000 Without Power in Manhattan

Just as executives of Con Edison finished methodically cutting off power to three relatively small parts of New York City’s power grid on Monday evening, an unforeseen event knocked the lights off for about 250,000 customers across a broad swath of Manhattan.

At about 8:30 p.m., electricity suddenly stopped flowing to apartments and office buildings from East 39th Street all the way down to the southern tip of the island, said Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison.

 

[PRR 60]

They did that to protect the underground power cables & transformers. They turned off power from basically 34th Street south deliberately to protect equipment.

There are reports of cars floating on 20th Street & Avenue C, also known in the past as Alphabet City.

The Manhattan outage is reported to be a failure of an underground transmission line due to water intrusion. In this case it was not a planned outage.

 

[AlanB]

Alan, it's more than that.

250,000 Without Power in Manhattan

Just as executives of Con Edison finished methodically cutting off power to three relatively small parts of New York City’s power grid on Monday evening, an unforeseen event knocked the lights off for about 250,000 customers across a broad swath of Manhattan.

At about 8:30 p.m., electricity suddenly stopped flowing to apartments and office buildings from East 39th Street all the way down to the southern tip of the island, said Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison.

So I missed by 5 blocks.

 

[AlanB]

They did that to protect the underground power cables & transformers. They turned off power from basically 34th Street south deliberately to protect equipment.

There are reports of cars floating on 20th Street & Avenue C, also known in the past as Alphabet City.

The Manhattan outage is reported to be a failure of an underground transmission line due to water intrusion. In this case it was not a planned outage.

Bill,

I suppose that they've also had a failure, but ConEd had been warning for hours that they would deliberately shut down power on southern Manhattan as the water rose. They even did robo calls to people in the affected area to warn them.