Reassuring Thought Of The Day

It may be impossible to hop on an E train to safety:

The city’s plan to get people out of the path of a hurricane might make anyone uncomfortable who remembers Aug. 8, 2007.

That’s when three inches of rain came down in one hour and flooding shut down the subway.

“We would use our mass-transit system to evacuate the majority of people,” said Amy Schultz of the Office of Emergency Management at a City Council hearing yesterday.

An OEM brochure offers the same advice: “If the city issues an evacuation order . . . use public transportation if possible.”

That might not be possible. After last August’s meltdown, MTA chief Eliot Sander said the subway can handle only about an inch and a half of rain in an hour.

A major storm would “severely” affect the subway, Schultz acknowledged, but the evacuation would begin early, perhaps days before the storm.

“We’ve worked out the timing,” she said. “We have to ensure there’s enough time so the subway can be shut down.” Trains would not run during a hurricane.

August 8, 2007 . . . oh yeah, that sucked.