A commuter in New York City was puzzled when her usual subway route entrance was flooded with water.
Kaye Blegvad sent a tweet to New York City’s MTA asking them to explain the situation. MTA is New York City’s transit authority.
MTA explain yourself pic.twitter.com/yT2GXAzG9H
— Kaye Blegvad (@kayeblegvad) November 20, 2019
Blegveld spoke to Quartz and said: ‘The other subway entrances were dry and normal and nobody seemed to be freaking out, so I just got on the train. Only once I was on the train did I start thinking, wait, that really was quite insane.’
We’re pivoting to submarines. ^JLP
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) November 20, 2019
MTA replied to the tweet, saying that it would be moving ‘to submarines’. It followed this quip with an actual explanation, which was that it was testing a flood barrier.
But actually, we were testing a new “flex gate,” which is a flood barrier that would allow us to seal off a subway entrance. We “test flood” the entrance for four hours to make sure it was installed correctly, which it was!
We’re doing this because climate change is real. ^JLP
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) November 20, 2019
The MTA was conducting tests on a barrier that could seal off subway entrances in case of storm surges caused by hurricanes, like Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The subway damage from this hurricane cost $5-billion to repair. According to their website, MTA wrote: ‘With intense weather events like Superstorm Sandy expected to occur more often, we need to act now to protect this vital part of our system, so we can keep trains running safely.’
Image: Twitter
