A Year Later: Rebuilding After Sandy Continues

A year ago, Hurricane Sandy was churning off the East Coast and about to deliver one of the greatest left hooks anyone had ever seen. The storm was projected to make landfall within 100 miles or so of New York City, and would do so at an astronomical high tide. While it was not the strongest storm in the Atlantic Basin's history, it was the largest storm - with a wind shield of 1,100 miles.

That combination led to fears that entire parts of the New York metro area would be flooded out.

Those fears turned out to be right on the money.

Parts of the city and Jersey Shore and Long Island were indeed flooded out and battered by Sandy. While the storm didn't produce the kinds of flooding rains that have been visited by storms like Floyd or Irene, it was the storm surge that caused tremendous damage to New York City. Here are a bunch of before-after photos showing how far we've come in the cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

More than 200 people were killed by the storm in all, including dozens in both New York and New Jersey. The Jersey Shore was battered and some of the most iconic photos were taken from Seaside Heights where the famous rollercoaster and amusement park pier were swallowed up by the angry churning ocean.

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were both overrun by the waters in New York Harbor, and it has only been in the last two weeks that the Statue of Liberty was reopened to the public after its piers and electrical systems were repaired. Ellis Island is reopening to the public this week, although many pieces in the museum collection are still undergoing repairs and conservation efforts.

The flood waters inundated Lower Manhattan, Hoboken, Jersey City, and hundreds of miles of shoreline throughout the region.

Communities hardest hit included Breezy Point, Long Beach, Hoboken, and other coastal and low lying areas. Breezy Point was site of one of the worst sights during the crisis - a raging fire during the height of the storm that ended up burning more than a 100 homes with firefighters powerless to do anything. Since then, there have been accusations and lawsuits against Con Ed that they didn't turn power off to the area, which could have saved the area from the fires that started when electrical systems were inundated.

While some are still waiting for insurance to come through or have decided that rebuilding isn't worth the effort and have sought homes on higher ground elsewhere, others have started rebuilding.

Many shore communities have made an effort to rebuild damaged boardwalks. A few were able to rebuild in time for this summer, but many others were only able to get a few sections done or otherwise cleared debris so that beach access was assured.

Yet risks remain from Sandy damage. A devastating fire destroyed more than 50 businesses in Seaside Park just two weeks ago. The fire apparently started in wiring underneath a portion of the town's boardwalk that survived Sandy but was damaged by the flood waters. The damage went undetected until after it caused the fire destroying businesses and buildings that had survived Sandy.

The New York City subways, which famously run 24-7-365, were shut down ahead of the storm. Efforts were made to try and protect key assets - the tunnels and entrances in low lying areas, but those efforts failed in Lower Manhattan as the temporary measures were no match for the historic storm surge that flooded Lower Manhattan and crippled the MTA's subway system.

In all 9 subway tunnels were flooded, and repairs to those tunnels will continue for the foreseeable future. One, the Montague Tube, will be out of service for more than a year as the entire tunnel needs to be rebuild and reinforced against future storm damage. Every piece of electronic gear, every switch, every signal, and even the rails and ties, have to be replaced because they sat in the salt water that flooded the tunnels. The MTA's ability to get the system largely up and running, including a bus bridge while the subway service was being restored will be a case-study in how to deal with disaster management for decades to come. It also once again showed how and why the subway system is so critical to a functioning and growing metropolis like New York City. It's why the City and State must come up with the money to invest in growing the system and reinforcing and modernizing the system. The subways are integral to the city's very survival and nothing can replace a functioning subway system or else the city will grind to a halt under the strain of too many people trying to get to their places of employment.

While the MTA heroically managed to get service restored quickly, including to the A line to the Rockaways that was washed out by the storm surge in Jamaica Bay, the system continues to be plagued by delays and signal failures throughout the affected subway tunnels and flooded areas due to salt water corrosion. All of those issues will have to be addressed to keep the system functioning. Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a point of touting the MTA restoration efforts, but he's refused thus far to commit to increasing the state aid to the MTA to rebuild and reinforce the system further adding to the agency's debt load as it needs to borrow to make the necessary improvements. That's a substantial failure on his part.

Across the Hudson, NJ Transit is still dealing with all the damage to its system, and the fact that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie refuses to take action against James Weinstein for not implementing and overseeing the protection of the rail fleet that ended up being purposefully stored in flood zones in Kearny's Meadows Yard and Hoboken's terminal yard. It's understandable that damage to fixed equipment - the switches and repair facilities - couldn't be reduced due to their location, but the rail fleet suffered damage that continued to hamper commuters for months after. That was completely avoidable. NJ Transit ignored flooding risks and allowed hundreds of railcars and locomotives to be flooded out. The damage has yet to be completely repaired.

The Port Authority's bridges and tunnels weathered the storm mostly intact, but there was significant damage at LaGuardia Airport, where flooding swept through the terminals and into the parking lots, and PATH was completely overwhelmed between Hoboken and World Trade Center. It took months before service was restored.

The rebuilding around the region continues to be uneven as insurance companies, FEMA, and state and localities are dealing with all kinds of issues. Some areas have been bought out by the government so as to return those areas to marsh lands instead of development.

Other parts are building new and improved reinforced dune networks - steel sheet piles buried underneath sand dunes planted with sea grass. Some of those efforts have been hampered by landowners who protest the eminent domain easements necessary to allow their construction. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the added value of sand dune protection must be weighed against any potential lost views. Frankly, the fact that the person lost views ignores the fact that the sand dunes act to protect those homes and the homes of their neighbors from the devastating storm surge.

The Hurricane also provided yet another clarifying moment when Congressional Republicans basically thwarted any action to fund rebuilding aid, re-funding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and delayed action for 91 days. Many of these same Republicans have their hands out with no strings attached and no conditions when disaster aid is requested for their own districts, but they demanded that any disaster aid include offsets from other parts of the budget, and otherwise imposed conditions on disaster aid that had not been done in any prior instance.

The delay had real ramifications - delaying the time for which people could be reimbursed from the NFIP, including for floods occurring elsewhere in the country as well as in the New York metro area.

Utilities are still dealing with the disaster too - having to ramp up their efforts to disaster-proof their systems. Sandy revealed that far too many key assets are in flood zones and that the utilities are ill prepared to deal with the scope of damage. New Jersey's PSE&G fared far better than other New Jersey utilities, but power-restoration efforts were far slower than anyone wants. PSE&G has proposed a multi-year multi-billion dollar improvement project, which includes taller power poles that are more resistant to wind and tree damage, and new gear that reduces the chances that downed lines and poles take out power adjacent power lines. Despite those improvements, there are communities that are balking at the taller poles, complaining that it changes the character of their towns. It's NIMBYism at its core, but these will be some of the same people who will complain loudest when the power goes out.

The power outages also caused significant shortages of gasoline - and while New York State is building a gas reserve to deal with future disasters, efforts to require gas stations to have generators on hand to power the pumps when the power goes out have faltered. That's a mistake.

A gas reserve doesn't matter much if the gas stations lack the power to operate the pumps. An effort should be made to require gas stations that are renovating or replacing their gas tanks to upgrade to include generator backups - whether portable generators or fixed generators on site to provide backup. The gas shortages meant long lines and the governors in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were forced to impose odd-even rationing to make sure that lines weren't out of control.

Cross Posted at LGF.

The MTA Announces Major Disruptions on R Line To Solve Sandy Flooding Damage

The MTA in NYC finally got all of its routes restored this past week, with the A running back out to the Rockaways, but they've also announced that they've got to take one of the Sandy damaged tunnels out of service to basically gut the entire thing and rebuild from scratch due to the damage done.

Work on the Montague tube, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan under the East River, will likely begin in August and is expected to last 12 to 14 months, officials said.

The tube carries the R train, which takes tens of thousands of riders to Manhattan from southern Brooklyn.

An MTA official told the Wall Street Journal that lingering corrosion from the floodwaters is damaging equipment and wires, frequently causing system failures.

It will cost at least $100 million to replace the damaged parts in the Montague tunnel, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Montague Street Tunnel serves the R train, and the MTA figures it will take about a year to do all the work.

The alternative - shutdowns on nights/weekends, would have meant service disruptions and never being able to get ahead of all the problems.

This is expected to take about $100 million and 12-14 months. This particular tunnel was the hardest hit by Sandy, and took the longest to restore to service, but has been plagued with signal and electric power problems ever since.

The work involves:

Work includes the demolition of existing duct banks; removal & disposal of existing tunnel lighting, conduits, wiring, fixtures, ballast & receptacles; construction of new duct banks; installation of new Power & Communications cables in the new duct banks; reconstruction of circuit breaker houses CBH # 82, CBH # 83 & CBH # 91; rehabilitation of two substations (Montague Furman Substation & Broadway-Park Row Substation); new tunnel lighting including fixtures, wiring, & conduit; replacing isolation dampers & wiring for the fan plant; replacement of three submersible pumps & new AC/DC lighting at the pump rooms; track work including new rails & plates; installation of new 8" dry discharge line in both tubes; painting & lead abatement.

The biggest problem is the one that isn't mentioned. Hardening against future storms isn't part of this plan. That means another Sandy-type storm would put the entire system back into a crisis with no option except to watch the system flood and pump it out and try to restore service.

That's not acceptable, but no one seems to have a way to find the funding to make that happen.

Another Report Shows NJ Transit Ignored Flooding Risks

NJ Transit continues to show that it ignored reports and warnings that its facilities in Hoboken and Kearny were in flood zones and equipment and materials stored there could be subject to flooding.

A report studying climate change and its effect on NJ Transit highlighted that both Kearny and Hoboken were in flood zones.

The $45,990 study included a map that shows the Kearny and Hoboken rail yards sit squarely in “storm surge areas.” Sandy floodwaters inundated both yards, swamping locomotives and rail¬cars — including 84 new multilevel passenger cars — and damaging spare parts. In those two yards, damage to railcars and locomotives was estimated at $100 million.

Nearly two months after the storm hit, NJ Transit’s rail service is still not operating at 100 percent. And the decision to leave locomotives and passenger cars in the low-lying yards has provoked a torrent of criticism from lawmakers and rail advocates. Throughout it all, NJ Transit officials, at hearings in Trenton and Washington, D.C., have maintained that they had no prior knowledge the yards could flood.

“I wish I had had the foresight and the understanding to know that a yard in the Meadowlands, in Kearny, that the western part of the yard in Hoboken, which had never flooded before, was going to flood. But I didn’t,” Executive Director Jim Weinstein told the Assembly Transportation Committee during a Dec. 10 hearing that focused largely on the agency’s costly decision not to move the equipment out of harm’s way.

“We now know under the right circumstances that they are prone to flooding,” Weinstein told the committee.

Weinstein has repeatedly said that NJ Transit made the right decision to leave hundreds of pieces of equipment in the two yards, based on what the agency knew at the time. Of them, 323 pieces were damaged.

“There is no history of flooding at the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex,” he said.

NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. said the report was read by David Gillespie, NJ Transit’s director of energy and sustainability, but characterized it as “generic,” with no specific predictions for flooding of the magnitude caused by Sandy.

NJ Transit hired First Environment Inc. of Boonton in 2011 to look at climate change and the risk weather events, such as rising seawater levels, wind velocity and temperatures, pose to NJ Transit bridges, tunnels, culverts, rails, terminals, stations, platforms, offices and other assets over the next 20 years. The report listed strategies the agency can use to minimize weather-related damage to its assets, and guide NJ Transit in capital planning.

It concluded that NJ Transit “will continue to experience weather-related impacts … can expect more frequent service disruptions over the next 20 years and must consider how the weather is affecting the state of good repair for its assets. The “next immediate step for NJ Transit is to prioritize its critical assets and determine … strategies it wants to implement,” the report said.

The report didn't specify a specific storm, but that's actually besides the point.

Jim Weinstein, the agency's executive director, has repeatedly claimed that it didn't get warnings that its facilities would flood, and that it was the agency's experience from past storms that they wouldn't flood.

Well, they did - and the flooding caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to a third of its rail fleet. The damaged and lost equipment has meant that service is still not back to normal.

NJ Transit knew that there was a risk of flooding in those storage yards, yet it didn't move the equipment to higher ground because it believed that those areas were safe from flooding.

The agency ignored warnings issued by the National Weather Service, other weather agencies, and anyone who listened to weather reports 48 hours before Sandy hit knew that this would cause massive amounts of flooding to low lying areas. That includes Kearny and Hoboken.

That's exactly what happened.

One doesn't have to believe in global warming to know that having rail maintenance facilities in flood zones exposes those facilities to potential flooding. NJ Transit did nothing to move the equipment out of those areas before the storm hit, claiming that by moving it to other areas that it would expose them to damage. That's nonsense and they know it. There were places up and down the Northeast Corridor and other NJ Transit lines that the equipment could be stowed more safely. It chose not to do so.

The agency claimed that had it stored equipment on other lines, it could be subjected to downed trees or downed power lines. Both are technically correct, but if NJ Transit maintained its rights of way (or on lines operated by freight rail or Amtrak) by properly trimming trees, then the damage would have been minimized.

NJ Transit is great at making excuses for its inexcusable actions, but not so great at providing rail services or communicating with the public. Heck, they rationalize poor communications and misleading service updates by saying that they're doing so despite the tremendous damage done to their system. It's nonsense.

The MTA could do a fantastic job with even greater damage done to its system. It wasn't the damage. It's the NJ Transit's missteps and miscommunication.

Excuses wont cut it. Things have to change at the agency, and that means that Gov. Christie and the legislature needs to come down hard on Weinstein and company.

The Case Against NJ Transit's James Weinstein

Jim Weinstein is the executive director of NJ Transit and his latest round of hearings with members of Congress and the New Jersey legislature raise questions about how the agency was run before, during, and after Hurricane Sandy made landfall.

The main focus has been on how and why the agency failed to move more than 300 railcars out of flood zones in Kearny and Hoboken. That's a more than valid line of questions, and Weinstein and NJ Transit answers are anything but satisfactory.

It shows a disregard for the severity of the impending storm, and those decisions have long-lasting repercussions.

Case in point is word today that train service to Hoboken for electrified lines will be two months away from restoration. Fully replacing the damaged power substation in Hoboken would take more than a year.

Trains that run on diesel power are able to use the station. The Gladstone branch, which normally runs on electric power, has had to use diesel, which means service on some of the other lines has been cut back to compensate.

NJ Transit executive James Weinstein told the agency's monthly board meeting Thursday that it will take eight to 10 weeks to finish an interim replacement for the destroyed substation. Weinstein said it could take a year or more to finish a permanent substation.

Equipment that can't be moved is susceptible to flooding when it's placed in a flood zone. The agency is now looking at a long range rebuilding plan that includes moving the equipment to higher ground and reduce the chances of a repeat failing performance.

However, this situation calls out for the dual mode trains that NJ Transit purchased at a cost of more than $11 million a pop. Those trains were purchased because of their flexibility to address the fact that some portions of the NJ Transit system was electrified with overhead power lines (catenary) and other portions were not.

Nine of those trains are missing in action because they were among the 300+ cars and locomotives that were flooded out by Sandy in the Hoboken and Kearny yards.

In other words, the key equipment that could restore service to full functionality at Hoboken is unavailable because it was flooded out because of the failure to move that equipment to higher ground.

Weinstein has been going around saying that service has been largely restored and that most lines are back to full service, and yet his agency and his decisions led to significant portions of that system to see reduced service for weeks and months on end because they didn't move the equipment that could be moved to higher ground.

Dual mode trains would allow the Gladstone Branch and MidTown Direct service to return to full capacity in Hoboken until power is fully restored. That those trains are unavailable because they weren't relocated to a safer location is a decision that rests on Weinstein.

After all, the agency claimed that these locomotives were necessary even after the cancellation of the ARC tunnel project and that they could be repurposed for use elsewhere in the rail system.

I've noted that as well - the trains could help improve air quality at Hoboken and permit expanded service on electrified lines.

Now, they sit along with hundreds of other railcars waiting to be repaired from flood damage.

The delays in restoring rail service have been exacerbated by the flooded cars, and the agency has obfuscated on this point repeatedly. We need to get to the bottom of this, and Weinstein must be held accountable. That means that Gov. Chris Christie needs to get involved and make him accountable for the agency's failures.

Yet Another Reason Not To Trust NJ Transit

I've long written that NJ Transit could not be trusted to carry out capital projects such as the now-killed ARC Tunnel project and that it couldn't manage its current operating budget or priorities properly.

Now comes word that NJ Transit recklessly disregarded reports from the weather services that it positioned one third of its rail fleet in areas that were expected to flood.

That's no way to run a transit agency and Gov. Christie and the legislature must hold the agency accountable for this huge mess. And as usual, there's a stream of miscommunications, misdirection and general obfuscation by the agency about its current actions and plans on investigations in to how and why those trains were left in flood prone areas at a time when the MTA not only took flood warnings seriously, but didn't lose any buses or trains to flood damage.

- New Jersey Transit's struggle to recover from Superstorm Sandy is being compounded by a pre-storm decision to park much of its equipment in two rail yards that forecasters predicted would flood, a move that resulted in damage to one-third of its locomotives and a quarter of its passenger cars.

That damage is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars and take many months to repair, a Reuters examination has found.

The Garden State's commuter railway parked critical equipment - including much of its newest and most expensive stock - at its low-lying main rail yard in Kearny just before the hurricane. It did so even though forecasters had released maps showing the wetland-surrounded area likely would be under water when Sandy's expected record storm surge hit. Other equipment was parked at its Hoboken terminal and rail yard, where flooding also was predicted and which has flooded before.

Among the damaged equipment: nine dual-powered locomotive engines and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million.

"If there's a predicted 13-foot or 10-foot storm surge, you don't leave your equipment in a low-lying area," said David Schanoes, a railroad consultant and former deputy chief of field operations for Metro North Railroad, a sister railway serving New York State. "It's just basic railroading. You don't leave your equipment where it can be damaged."

After Reuters made numerous inquiries to state and local officials this week about the decision to store equipment in the yards, an unidentified senior transportation official told the New York Post that NJ Transit had launched an internal probe, the Post reported on Saturday.

NJ Transit Chairman James S. Simpson, the state's transportation commissioner, told Reuters on Saturday he knew of no such investigation. NJ Transit spokesman John Durso said the agency had not launched a probe but would examine its response to the storm, as "is standard procedure following any major incident."

The Post said it stood by its story.

As of Friday, almost three weeks after the storm, the agency was still struggling to restore full service for its 136,000 daily rail commuters, running just 37 trains into New York Penn Station during the morning rush hour, rather than its usual 63. More service will be restored on Monday. The disruptions have caused long delays and crowded trains for Jersey residents who work in the biggest U.S. city.

James Weinstein, NJ Transit's executive director, said he did not expect the loss of equipment to have a significant effect on service in the coming weeks and months.

It's absolutely unconscionable that NJ Transit would leave so much of its equipment in Kearny and Hoboken when it knew or had reason to know that flooding was likely to cause damage to that equipment.

And the agency still stands by the claims that it would not affect service.

That's total nonsense.

We've already seen that the lack of equipment and trains has affected service. Trains are far more crowded than usual (those that were running, that is), and service wasn't restored to lines that could have been restored fairly easily - those that required power to service switches and signals (did the agency ever hear of generators for those jobs?).

No, what we've got is a complete exposure of just how inadequate the agency's storm planning was and their inability to get service restored in a timely fashion to those areas that had minimal damage. The fact is that had many of those trains been moved to yards and areas along the Bergen and Main Lines, the train service could have been restored much more quickly. There are raised platforms in Paterson as well as a yard in Waldwick that is well above the flood plain. Trains could have been positioned at intervals in those areas, and been largely protected from water damage.

There's simply no way that the agency can claim that service was not hampered by the fact that 1/3 of the trains were flood damaged. If that's to be believed, then one needs to completely suspend their disbelief.

NJ Transit and Port Authority Fail Commuters During Crisis Yet Again

The disaster response by NJ Transit and PATH is beyond deplorable. It's atrocious and defies common sense. The agency seems to think that it's done a good job in providing information to its customers, and yet there is a daily crush of thousands of commuters attempting to get home by way of one of the three rail lines servicing New Jersey other than the Atlantic City Line or the bus service that is wholly inadequate to pick up the slack.

All one has to do is look across the river to the MTA to see how disaster response should be handled.

The MTA faced as bad a crisis as anything that NJ Transit and the Port Authority faced combined. Miles of tracks were submerged and damaged. Seven rail tunnels were flooded as were several key stations. The entire system was impacted.

Yet, within days bus service was up and running and a week later subway service was resuming in the formerly flooded tunnels. This weekend will see still more service added, leaving just a handful of Lower Manhattan stations out of action plus a segment of the A line in the Rockaways that suffered catastrophic damage.

That compares with the PATH service, which is essentially out of action due to flooding of the two tunnels to the World Trade Center and damage to both the WTC and Hoboken terminals. They have a fraction of the track and stations to dewater, and yet they're taking even longer to restore service.

The same goes for NJ Transit and their rail lines.

The buses that NJ Transit are offering are wholly inadequate to the task and the agency can't even admit that they're not up to the task of attempting to provide service to hundreds of thousands of commuters that rely on mass transit on a daily basis.

An average train can move 800-1,000 people.

The average bus? 50? 60 if you pack them in tight? People who normally take rail are somehow supposed to get on a handful of buses that are already full with their ordinary riders. The existing bus schedule hasn't been increased to handle the overflow; people are somehow supposed to take the existing bus service, even though the Port Authority can't handle the crowds at the bus terminal.

There simply aren't enough scheduled buses to handle the loads. Even with emergency shuttle service from designated locations, people simply can't get to where they need to be - namely work.

And that doesn't even begin to describe the mess at the Port Authority. Not only have the crowds been a disaster waiting to happen, but what should normally be a 40 minute commute stretches to 3-4 times as long because buses aren't available, are delayed, or inadequate to deal with the crowds during peak rush hour. Waiting an hour or two can help alleviate the congestion, but people can't do that when they've got family and obligations back home. Some things can't wait until 8-9pm before attempting a commute home. Add to that the fact that phone and Internet service is poor inside the Port Authority and you get little information as to why the delays are occurring beyond the congestion one sees.

That was the case earlier this week when not only were there no buses coming into pick up any passengers for 45 minutes while I was waiting on line, but there was no indication as to why or when service would be restored. On a separate occasion, NJ Transit and Port Authority didn't explain why service was delayed for more than an hour just to exit the Port Authority and it took further digging to find out that the traffic delays from the Lincoln Tunnel were the result of downed lines that blocked access to the George Washington Bridge - backing up traffic for miles on end and forcing detours to avoid the congestion.

The NJ Transit response has been inadequate as to how and why trains aren't running on the Bergen or Pascack Valley lines either. They could claim that the trains couldn't run because of power outages at key locations along the routes, but with power now being restored, NJ Transit should be working with the utilities to get power restored so that key mass transit links get back up and running faster - reducing the need for people to drive to work (exacerbating the fuel crunch around the region).

Besides, NJ Transit has operated trains on the Main/Bergen/Pascack lines during outages in the past. It's slow and tedious, but it can be done. They aren't even attempting that.

It would even be plausible for NJ Transit to contend that they can't run the trains because of damage to their Rail Operations Center, but that should have been resolved as well. After all, if the MTA can dewater 6 of 7 tunnels and get service up and running, NJ Transit could and should be able to do the same.

At the same time, there are further delays due to the fact that Amtrak hasn't been able to get all of its Hudson and East River tunnels functioning. They're running at reduced capacity as well, and they're hopefully going to be able to get back up and running. That would alleviate much of the crunch for both Long Islanders and New Jerseyeans because trains would be able to access Penn Station easier.

Governor Christie must hold the agency accountable and thus far he's not done enough to get the agency moving in the right direction. That compares with the MTA, which has done a yeoman's job of keeping the public informed as well as answering and answerable to Goveror Cuomo. The response has been light night and day, and it has made an already difficult situation intolerable.

Whereas the MTA is transparent on its rebuilding efforts - daily updates including photos and news conferences, the NJ Transit site has done little beyond the initial posting that indicates the damage in general terms and not what the agency has done already to rectify the situation.

Disaster Funding Bill Stalls In the US Senate Over GOP Opposition

As you know we've been dealing with the cleanup from Hurricane Irene (affecting the coast from NC on up through Vermont) and then the follow-up deluge from the remnants from TS Lee, which hit upstate NY, PA, and parts of NJ real hard.

The feds have to get funding for FEMA straightened out, because the FEMA coffers have run low due to the high number of natural disasters and to provide coverage to affected taxpayers and residents.

So what has happened? The bill funding the FEMA response has stalled in the Senate after coming up short on the latest vote. The GOP can't be bothered to fund this, although some GOPers in districts affected by the disasters are starting to put pressure on the leadership:

Gov. Chris Christie has said the storm caused billions of dollars worth of damage in New Jersey, and has promised to fight for disaster relief, even if it meant taking on his own party.

"We need the support now here in New Jersey, and that is not a Republican or a Democratic issue," Christie said after touring flood-damaged Lincoln Park. "I don’t want to hear about the fact that offsetting budget cuts have to come first before New Jersey citizens are taken care of."

The governor could not be reached for comment tonight.

Irene, and the ensuing flooding, caused extensive damage throughout the state [NJ - ed], with more than 31,000 residents filing claims through FEMA to help pay for damage. And nearly $38 million has been disbursed so far. FEMA regional spokesman Bill McDonnell says the hardest-hit areas were Bergen and Passaic, with each topping 4,000 claims.

Democrats had hoped the $7 billion bill would replenish FEMA, which has spent almost $400 million in the past two weeks on emergency food and shelter, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev). FEMA has only about $300 million left in its coffers, he said.

President Obama on Friday asked Congress for $500 million to ensure the disaster fund doesn’t run out of cash before the end of the month.

Several Republicans have asked the disaster spending be offset by reductions in other areas.

"I plan to insist my fellow senators take a long, hard look at where the funding comes from," U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said today before the vote. "Will it be more borrowing on the backs of our children and grandchildren, or will it be from the coffers of our numerous nation-building programs overseas? America’s priorities should come first."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), has said Republicans will attach a disaster-aid package to a continuing resolution, necessary to avoid a government shutdown before the end of the month.

That measure, which is likely to be brought up next week, would give the Senate another chance to vote on disaster relief, but it remains unclear if there are enough votes for passage.

Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) sent a letter to John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday, asking him to ensure FEMA is adequately funded.

There's some borrowing that is good - like when you borrow money for a mortgage, so that you have a place to live. Other borrowing makes little sense, like when you use credit cards and don't bother to pay the minimum. The FEMA funding is the former category - it's critical and essential, rather than living beyond our means. The FEMA funding is to make sure that folks and businesses can get back up and running - that would increase tax revenues all around as the money flows back into state, local, and federal coffers.

The GOP has been itching for a fight on funding government spending and thus far, they managed to kill $250 million for the FAA because they refused to reauthorize the FAA taxes that fund its operations over the need to reform the rural air program, that costs a fraction of the $250 million lost - annually. Pennywise and pound foolish then, and they're doing the same thing now.

The cost of doing nothing, and allowing the FEMA funding to run dry will mean that residents all along the East Coast will be out of luck - and that means that small businesses will lose business, close up, and end up costing even more as unemployment rates climb higher and tax revenues drop once again.

Widespread Flooding Across New Jersey and Pennsylvania As Rivers Rise; NY Seeing Historic Flooding

Overnight we got quite a bit of rain and flooding is resuming across parts of Northern and Central New Jersey flooded out by Irene. Now comes word that 100,000 people are being evacuated in parts of Pennsylvania due to the same rains - remnants from TS Lee. There's major flooding and problems around Philadelphia, including mudslides closing the Schuylkill Expressway and major flooding expected along the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers:

Major flooding is feared later today on the northern half of the Delaware River and in Trenton emergency officials were preparing to evacuate residents of low lying neighborhoods.

Havertown declared a state of emergency. Evacuations were under way at a condominium development in New Hope.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning in effect until 11:15 a.m., citing dangerous" conditions.

Even as the rain started to ease by 6:30 a.m., and water started to recede in some spots, evidence of the damage from the flash flooding was widespread. Some waterways, however, were expected to keep rising for hours.

The Schuylkill Expressway was closed between the Blue Route to Girard Avenue due to a mud slide and flooding at three different locations.

Suburban motorists were being advised to get off eastbound 76 at the Blue Route and take it south to northbound I-95 to get into the city.

Gov. Tom Corbett has activated the National Guard and hasn't yet issued a separate disaster declaration from those issued following Hurricane Irene but may do so if necessary.

Flooding along the Susquehanna River may crest at the top of levees protecting Wilkes Barre and Kingston.

Officials in northeastern Pennsylvania called for a mandatory evacuation of more than 100,000 residents living along the Susquehanna River on Thursday due to expected flooding. The area was inundated in the historic Agnes flood of 1972.

Luzerne County Management Agency official Frank Lasiewicki told The Associated Press Thursday the river is projected to crest at 41 feet between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday - the same height as the levee system protecting riverfront communities including Wilkes-Barre and Kingston.

Residents were ordered to leave by 4 p.m.

UPDATE:
Flooding for New Hope, PA and Lambertville, NJ are going to be near historic levels rivaling floods during 2005 and 2006. The Flood Warning continues for
the Delaware River at New Hope-Lambertville bridge.

* From this morning to Saturday evening... or until the warning is
cancelled.
* At 2:45 am Thursday the stage was 12.2 feet.
* Flood stage is 13.0 feet.
* Major flooding is forecast.
* Forecast... rise above flood stage by this morning and continue to rise
to near 17.3 feet by tomorrow morning. The river will fall below flood
stage by Saturday early afternoon.
* Impact... at 17.0 feet... water is up to the top of the free bridge
piers.

That means that the area will have been hit by yet another historic level flood. That would put it on par with flooding from 2005, when this photo was taken.

The Catskill reservoirs are pretty much maxed out from the Irene flooding, and there's no additional capacity to divert waters, which means that the downstream rivers are flooding and there's nothing anyone can do about it except to get out of the way.

UPDATE:
The Southern Tier of New York near Binghamton is suffering from historic flooding along the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers come together in town, and while the town has flood walls that rise 15 feet, the rivers are expected to crest a full foot above that - meaning that significant parts of the city are expected to flood. There are already reports of overtopping in numerous locations and some seepage under and through the levee system is being reported.

The rain-swollen Susquehanna River overflowed retaining walls in downtown Binghamton today, sending water coursing down city streets and leaving officials scrambling to evacuate holdouts who didn’t heed earlier warnings to leave.

The Susquehanna’s water level was higher than 25 feet this morning, above the 25-foot record set in 2006 and more than 11 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. It was expected to rise another foot or so this afternoon.

Water started coming over the city’s retaining walls about 10 a.m., less than 12 hours after officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for sections near where the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers converge, Broome County emergency services manager Brett Chellis told The Associated Press.

“It’s getting worse by the minute,” Chellis said.

In downtown Binghamton, water coursed down city streets and climbed halfway up trees and streetlamps on a plaza at Confluence Park where the two rivers meet.

These floods are even higher than the historic 2006 flooding. The Susquehanna isn't expected to crest until later today more than a foot above the 2006 record in Binghamton, 2 feet more than the 2006 record in Vestal, and you can repeat the situation downstream.

The situation is much the same up and down the Southern Tier Expressway (I-86/Rt. 17) corridor that is a major East/West route through New York, as well as I-88, which runs between Binghamton and Albany. SUNY Binghamton is serving as an evacuation center for some residents, and the town of Oneonta (also home to a SUNY School) is seeing major flooding.

In sum, we're seeing major flooding, major interstate highways blocked, flooded, or washed out, and the worst of the flooding is still to come as some of the rivers have yet to crest. Flash flood warnings are in effect for parts of PA, NY, and NJ.

UPDATE:
There have been some incredible photos taken of all the flooding. Hershey Park is pretty much underwater and places that have never experienced this kind of flooding before are seeing floods and all kinds of damage from this storm system. We're talking massive and pervasive damage to infrastructure throughout the region.

UPDATE:
Rainfall totals from the past 24 hours are impressive in the NYC metro area and the totals are rising in some places. Rainfall levels in parts of upstate New York are still coming in and are in the process of being updated.

Flooding Continues Across North Jersey

The remnants from Tropical Storm Lee are causing widespread misery across much of the same region affected by Hurricane Irene. Floodwaters, which had receded in many places, have again been creeping upwards and road closures are in effect or are expected as rains continue.

Hard hit areas like Wayne's Hoffman Grove have not seen the Irene floodwaters recede, but some places that had been able to begin cleaning up are putting efforts on hold as floods resume across the Passaic River floodplain.

State officials are closely monitoring the situation, and the US Senate appears to be in the process of approving $5 million for a home buyback program to buy homes in the flood zones, but it still requires the House to approve a similar measure. One of the issues is that it's a rather paltry sum and another is that far too many affected homeowners think that the buybacks shortchange homeowners because they're not paying what the owners think the homes are worth.

If a home continually gets flooded out, the value should plummet but owners think that the values are higher than the market would bear.

Should this buyback get approved, it would allow localities to buy and demolish homes in flood zones to create new wetlands that can help absorb flood waters.

Moreover, one has to wonder at the rationale for owners finishing out basements in flood-prone areas. It's bad enough when a basement floods, and the costs to replace HVAC and stored possessions can reach $10,000 or more, but finishing a basement is an unnecessary cost and localities should be moving to prevent such work from being done to lessen the costs to the homeowners, insurers, and taxpayers. While I completely understand the need to maximize space within a home and that building up or adding rooms can be far more costly, a basement flooding out on a periodic basis undermines the utility of that space and would be akin to keep a boat in the basement - it keeps costing.

Don't Expect Flood Mitigation Plans Anytime Soon

After disastrous flooding in New Jersey and upstate New York, we're getting the usual round of calls for fixes that may prevent future flooding.

The problem is that all those fixes require money and time.

A $330 million project for Bound Brook is not yet complete, and showed some of the limitations of the flood mitigation project. For one thing, the flood control project planned for a 150 year event, and Irene was a 500 year event (but expect that kind of storm damage to become more common place).

Heck, they usually require planning and it turns out that a New York State Panel empowered in 2006 to look at flood fixes for the Mohawk River near Albany never met.

A task force created to find ways to lessen water damage after a 2006 flood hit the Mohawk Valley and the state canal system has never met despite a state mandate. Flood damage in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene raises questions about the failure to develop a plan that could have reduced losses this summer.

Plans for a water diversion tunnel in New Jersey that would shift water from the Passaic River to Newark Bay have been floated several times, and there was even money set aside for that purpose, but environmentalists ended up killing the tunnel.

Population density is part of the problem within the Passaic watershed. There's far too many properties within the flood plain and flooding is complicated by runoff from more developed areas. Buyback plans to condemn and demolish homes and businesses in the worst flooding areas are nearly tapped out; these areas soak up floodwaters and reduce downstream flooding.

Some localities have called for dredging of waterways that have become choked with silt from runoff but environmentalists block such moves on grounds that it is a temporary solution, or that it will disturb polluted areas releasing more contaminants into waterways, etc.

Flood control projects meant to protect downstream areas get blamed for upstream flooding, which becomes a contentious issue as political disputes end up blocking any action at all - and these issues require interstate and regional solutions since watersheds often cross political boundaries.

Areas upstate are considering the unthinkable - instead of rebuilding along the same streams and waterways that have flooded several times in recent years, they are contemplating moving to higher ground and moving all the infrastructure that goes along with it. There are also calls for no new development within the Catskill watershed (which includes the NYC water supply area) and other efforts to reduce flood damage by moving structures out of projected flood areas.

Such plans wont help places like New York City, where much of the area is within a flood zone including Lower Manhattan.

Damage Reports and Continued Flooding Shows Hurricane Irene Was Anything But Hype

As I have previously noted, Hurricane Irene and its damage path was anything but hyped by media outlets. The New York Times reports that the storm will rank among the 10 costliest disasters in US history. That's even as insurers breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn't be on the hook for as much of the cost as they expected because there was more flooding than wind damage. Flood damage is typically picked up by the National Flood Insurance Program and isn't covered under typical homeowners policies.

Industry estimates put the cost of the storm at $7 billion to $10 billion, largely because the hurricane pummeled an unusually wide area of the East Coast. Beyond deadly flooding that caused havoc in upstate New York and Vermont, the hurricane flooded cotton and tobacco crops in North Carolina, temporarily halted shellfish harvesting in Chesapeake Bay, sapped power and kept commuters from their jobs in the New York metropolitan area and pushed tourists off Atlantic beaches in the peak of summer.

While insurers have typically covered about half of the total losses in past storms, they might end up covering less than 40 percent of the costs associated with Hurricane Irene, according to an analysis by the Kinetic Analysis Corporation. That is partly because so much damage was caused by flooding, and it is unclear how many damaged homes have flood insurance, and partly because deductibles have risen steeply in coastal areas in recent years, requiring some homeowners to cover $4,000 worth of damages or more before insurers pick up the loss.

This could make it harder for many stricken homeowners to rebuild, and could dampen any short-term boost to the construction industry that typically accompanies major storms, Jan Vermeiren, the chief executive of Kinetic Analysis, said in an interview.

“Especially now that the economy is tight, and people don’t have money sitting around, local governments are broke, and maybe people can’t even get loans from the banks,” Mr. Vermeiren said.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut sought expedited disaster declarations from the federal government on Tuesday, which would pave the way for more federal aid. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York wrote President Obama that he had seen “hundreds of private homes either destroyed or with major damage and an enormous amount of public infrastructure damage.” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey wrote the president that “immediate federal assistance is needed now to give New Jersey’s residents a helping hand at an emotionally and financially devastating time.”

Even as I write this, major flooding continues through New Jersey and upstate New York and Vermont communities are still cut off due to massive flash flood damage that washed out roads and communications.

The Passaic River flooding continues even though the river has crested at record or near record levels. They don't expect flooding to recede until the end of the week at the least. It's the same story on the Raritan River and other rivers through New Jersey. (Photos of damage, including Mountain View Road in Wayne, New Jersey, and Totawa, New Jersey).

While NJ Transit is getting service restored including on the Northeast Corridor, the Port Jervis line into NY is suspended indefinitely due to storm damage and it's affecting NJ Transit service and customer service is nonresponsive to the situation (and hasn't issued warnings to commuters to seek other routes due to lack of equipment or overcrowded trains).

Ongoing flooding is complicating efforts to restore power through the region. Crews can't get in to make repairs until the flooding recedes and/or crews can clear roads of debris so that power companies can repair the damage. That means that the power will remain out in and around the affected areas. Some people have been told not to expect a restoration of power until the weekend, and others have an even longer timeframe due to need to wait on receding floodwaters.

Flooding Continues In Northern New Jersey

We're still dealing with ongoing flooding here in northern New Jersey as the Passaic River is in a major flood stage. Wayne, Paterson, Little Falls, and parts of Fair Lawn are submerged.

The river was expected to hit 11.9 feet in Little Falls around 1 a.m., almost 5 feet above flood stage. As a result, Paterson officials on Saturday closed the West Broadway, Temple Street, Arch Street and Haledon Avenue bridges that cross the river in the northwestern part of the city. The Passaic County Office of Emergency Management said the bridges were expected to remain closed for at least a portion of today.

The swollen, roiling river was expected to hit 11.9 feet in Little Falls around 1 a.m., almost 5 feet above flood stage. And predictions were that it would sustain high depths well into the week. Paterson officials said they do not expect floodwaters to fully recede for several days and said their next concern is how the flooding will affect storm sewers and the sanitary sewer system.

Chief among the Bergen communities hit by flooding Saturday was Fair Lawn, where Emergency Management Coordinator Wendy Demeraski said she expected the crest along her borough about dawn. Several residents on flooded roads had voluntarily evacuated, she said.

But in Hillsdale, where the Pascack Brook jumped its banks, and Lodi, where the Saddle River crept into several neighborhoods, crews were removing debris, washing down muddy streets and assessing the damages as the floodwaters receded. And municipalities that have historically seen bad floods, including New Milford, River Edge and Oradell along the Hackensack River, experienced minimal flooding.

Bridges have been swamped along the Passaic and major highways and access roads are flooded out - and the Great Falls in Paterson is roaring as the river continues above major flood stage for at least another couple of days.

The malls in Wayne have been turned into islands among a sea of flooding. The damage from the flooding is likely in the millions as homes and businesses have been engulfed in the rising flood waters.

Gov. Chris Christie had declared a state of emergency for Northern New Jersey earlier this week in anticipation of the flooding in the area, and the National Guard is providing assistance to local law enforcement in evacuating low lying areas and rerouting traffic away from the hardest hit areas.

Flooding has been a concern along the Passaic and Pompton Rivers for years, but there are no easy solutions. It's a function of geology and population density along the flood plain. Some homeowners have been bought out by the state and federal government to restore wetlands and the flood plain, but to do so along the entire Pompton and Passaic Rivers would run into the billions of dollars. The region simply gets more water than the watershed can handle during major rainfalls, particularly after snowpack melts.

UPDATE:
To give some sense of perspective over how much water is flowing over the Great Falls, I took
these photos of the Great Falls back in 2009 when the river was flowing at a moderate level.