It’s really a money issue! How much money did the MTA LOOSE by shutting down the system? Can they afford to shut down the system again?

Based on wikipedia, there are 3 million Subway riders on a Saturday and 2.3 Million on a Sunday. You are looking at 5.3 million subway fares lost in the two days. At $2.25 for a ride you get $11.9 Million dollars in LOST revenue. Since they shut the system down around noon on Saturday, let’s just drop it down to a nice even $10 Million fr two days.

Will the subway system shut down again for a loss of $10 Million? What if it was a weekday!! Wikipedia says there a 5.1 Millions riders a weekday. I bet you they would have thought twice about shutting the system down in the middle of the week where the financial impact is much higher.

HUGE Overreaction. If they think Category 1 is just terrible, tell that to New Orleans.

Yes they did overreact looking at the information. The great question here is why isn’t anyone looking at the next time. Properly designing and rebuilding the core systems to deal better with these conditions. Local switches to close effected areas rather than shutting everything. Better break walls to deal with rising water. NY’s core systems are a conglomeration of ancient and modern technology with limited vision to the future. So the question is why aren’t the politicians and media talking about it?

When preparations began, we were looking at a possible category 4 hurricane, I believe. There’s no way to predict that it is going to dwindle by the time it reaches us. It could have been full-force and a lot worse. I thought the planning and safety measures put into place were very impressive. ALso glad that it has finally been learned that pets must also be taken care of and evacuation shelters must allow them to accompany their owners. Like the people who refused to evacuate in front of Katrina, I would have stayed put if my cats couldn’t come. How could I leave those trusting, loving souls to their own devices?

For once, I was impressed with the MTA. I thought they did very well to get everything to safety and restore service as quickly as they did. Even though the subway was slow this morning – I was surprised on Sunday to hear it would be running at all!

Oh please. We got lucky. If the shift north hadn’t happened sat night we would have gotten killed with an additional 3-6 inches of rain. We have trees down everywhere, flooding everywhere, people without power, billions in damage and still it could have been so much worse. Imagine if we had gotten 80+ mph winds. It would have been devastating.

NYC Motto: Ya damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

It would be great if the city can improve the NYC sewage.

Anyone slightly inconvenienced a little more than necessary just because where they were it was slightly less bad, and they are complaining about all the shut downs and evacuations, the rest of us who are sane should recognize these complainers as MORONS!
After we recognize them as the morons they are we should then totally discount their complaining as the rants of stupid selfish people who are only interested in what is easiest for them and no one else.
I thin most government officials and the people running the operating transit agencies all sis the right things, and made

No, I don’t think they overreacted. I have a tree that had huge branches fall into the street/neighbor’s driveway twice yesterday and is being cut down as I write by the City because it is not stable, no electricity since 4am yesterday and a one year old that I had to send somewhere else last night because of the issues previously stated.

Of course, those who are not having any issues or don’t live in New York will think that government overreacted. Infrastructure is simply not the same from state to state.

The shut down of the transit system was appropriate and it was done within reasonable time frames for a system as large as the MTA and the need to get equipment to a safe location to recover quickly. Evacuations seemed appropriate for the most part.
The mayor seemed to be trying to make up for the snow storm he sat out in the Bahamas and tried to get more face time than necessary.

What a pointless question! What question would be asked if less preparation took place and the storm damage was much worse? C’mon. No one will ever be satisfied!

officials didn’t over act …. THE MEDIA DID . they made it sound like the end of the world was coming. they know that they worse they make it sound and the more fear they can gnerate the HIGHER their ratings will be . people were glued to their tv’s and radios .. perhaps you noticed … the world was coming to and end but the didn’t stop showing their commercials .

is there any way we can blame a. j. burnett for anything?

Everything was fine except that could have keep the train runing untill like 3 or 6 pm on sat. THe storm hit sunday night.

I give the government officials props for doing their jobs. They warned the public and made decisions regarding transportation and evacuations that most likely saved lives.

Who I blame for the overkill is the media. What a bunch of buffoons. They kept going on and on about the possible horrors when it was evident that the horrors just weren’t there. They were being dishonest in their quest for a big story. I have learned not to trust them and will seek my own confirmation of the facts before making any decisions for my family in the future.

Look around the internet, folks. There are plenty of independent sources with which to gleen information. Don’t depend on weathermen who stand in mud puddles and try to tell us it is a flood.

27 people died. Cudda been a lot more without the preparation . The NYC armchair quarterbacks w 20/20 hindsight are a sorry lot.

It was a good move and they were right, why risk lives? It’s a bit ridiculous to second guess it. Sure, transit could have gone a few more hours but why take chances, a bit of inconvenience is worth it for safety. The upsetting thing to me is that people in my neighborhood, on the upper east side, seemed like they’d claw your eyes out for a bottled water and box of crackers. Stores lines were crazy like we were in week 2 of Katrina. Bravo though to the City Officials for playing it safe. This type of speculation just shows they’re damned it they do and damned if they don’t.

I live in Long Beach. Ocean water was in our streets. Most life long residents left. After helping with the evacuation at the Long Beach LIRR station, I went to East Rockaway on Saturday on the last train out. It was bad in East Rockaway too. Trees down everywhere, floods, and power lines sparking away.

Did officials overreact? No, their major concern was for the safety of the people. Property can be replaced…people can’t. As they saying goes: “Better safe, than sorry” Job well done as far as I’m concerned.

Being lucky with the eye of the storm directly over NYC losing its strength and turning differently does NOT change the fact that most NYer’s were readied & prepared. There are neighbors living several blocks from here dealing with down trees, flooded basements and being of a widespread but scattered power outages in Queens County (as a borough of NYC) . Rising rivers and streams caused by Irene, just asked those surprised by this monster storm living in Westchester or up the Hudson counties. Bravo to the Mayor & other municipal officials to sounding the early warning & do the RIGHT thing, along with the governors and the POTUS for pre-positioning help.

This was so overblown it was funny. I live in Florida, and the damage cause by hurricanes is devastating. In 2004 when 4 Cat 4-5 Hurricanes in a row came thru we handled them. Most of your forecasters sound the gloom and doom but do not add that because of the amount of tall buildings in the city it would tear the wind bands to shreds, there may be some windows blown out also basement flooding which with proper construction could be handled. The ordering of evacuations and then shutting down mass transit? The city was not even prepared for the time factors involved.

Stop baiting the story to get sensational

Idiotic Title – All the first responders and government officials did the best they could do to ensure all-around safety. “We prepared for the worst and hoped for the best” was the precedence and result. All involved did an excellent job, given the scope and severity of the situation. Well doneNY!!!!

Nope. It was serious enough and caused much damage and flooding in the Tri-State.

But, NYer’s overreacted to the small earthquake centered closer to DC than here.