Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, said that storm damage was extensive to the agency’s infrastructure, which includes the region’s airports and the PATH subway system. The strong tidal surges, reaching above 14 feet, “crippled our transportation system, causing widespread flooding and power outages.”
Port Authority officials haven’t set a number for funds they are seeking, but Foye said they will need hundreds of millions for repairs and “billions to install mitigation projects,” such as elevating electrical substations and putting more pumps at JFK and LaGuardia airports.
James Weinstein, executive director of New Jersey Transit, said the system, also hit hard by the storm, will need $400 million for damages. Another $800 million would make the system more “resilient.”
The transit agency has been criticized for putting its cars and other equipment in places that ended up flooding. When Lautenburg asked what happened, Weinstein said, using the Hoboken Yard as an example, that officials had estimated there was a “80 to 90 percent likelihood” that flooding wouldn’t occur there. However, it did, and among the losses were 80 multilevel passenger cars when water came into the cars’ cabins.
Lhota of the MTA told the Senate subcommittee that apart from rebuilding, which is already a big effort, officials “need to think about how we can prevent this from happening again.”
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