“ But the report, which was completed in February 2006, said the transit agency appeared to have neglected regular maintenance of the system of pipes and valves that drain water from the tracks into the city sewer system. It also said that work crews were not given the information or the equipment they needed to do their jobs efficiently, and that in some cases, the size of the crews sent to flooded areas were either too large or too small for the job. In addition, some crews took too long to get to locations where they were needed.
— Yesterday’s flooding of the subway system led to harsh criticism of the MTA, who had also been under scrutiny in a strikingly similar event on September 8, 2004, when the city’s basic transportation infrastructure failed to respond to unpredictably bad weather. But has the city taken any measures to avoid a repeat of 2004’s flood? If yesterday’s events were any clue, the answer is a resounding no.
