Staying classy in New Jersey - Storm Sandy and failure of the transit system

So how is Governor Christie working out for you people? From station WNYC:

How New Jersey Transit Failed Sandy's Test
On the weekend before Sandy thundered into New Jersey, transit officials studied a map showing bright green and orange blocks. On the map, the area where most New Jersey Transit trains were being stored showed up as orange � or dry. So keeping the trains in its centrally-located Meadows Maintenance Complex and the nearby Hoboken yards seemed prudent.

And it might have been a good plan. Except the numbers New Jersey Transit used to create the map were wrong.

If officials had entered the right numbers, they would have predicted what actually happened: a storm surge that engulfed hundreds of rail cars, some of them brand new, costing over $120 million in damage and thrusting the system�s passengers into months of frustrating delays.

But the fate of NJ Transit�s trains � over a quarter of the agency�s fleet - didn�t just hang on one set of wrong inputs. It followed years of missed warnings, failures to plan, and lack of coordination under Governor Chris Christie, who has expressed ambivalence about preparing for climate change while repeatedly warning New Jerseyans not to underestimate the dangers of severe storms.

This is a long article outlining the differences in New York City's handling of Tropical Storm Sandy and the efforts of New Jersey. The kicker -- WNYC and another newspaper asked to see a copy of the New Jersey Operations Plan (the NYC transit system is known as the MTA):

�For the general public, looking at the numbers and looking at the forecasts, they might not have believed it because they had never lived through something like that,� says MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. �But for those of us involved in planning and operating and preparing the system, the numbers are the numbers. Nobody�s going to sit here and look at a scary forecast and say, that�s never happened, we don�t have to worry about that. We worry -- that�s our job.�

The MTA plan for severe storms is detailed in five binders, each three inches thick. The agency also provided its timeline and plans for moving its trains.

NJ Transit�s Weinstein testified that his agency put together its storm plan long before Sandy.

�There was a very detailed plan complied by the railroad -- not the Friday before the storm, but in the wake of Irene on where to store the equipment,� he said. �There were lengthy calls on where the equipment is going and it�s all documented and detailed.�

WNYC and The Record asked, separately, for documentation of NJ Transit�s hurricane preparedness plans. Both news organizations received the same reply: a three-and-a-half page document with the words �New Jersey Rail Operations Hurricane Plan� atop the first page.

Everything else was blacked out.

A good read and a perfect example of how (and how not) to plan for future events. I do have a major nit: Storms the size and scope of Sandy are not rare and not unusual. We have had frequent hurricane and tropical storm landfalls on the East Coast (New England, New York, New Jersey). Sandy was larger in diameter than most but not out of the ordinary. Global Warming is not the cause.