The L train earlier this week...(via MTA's Flickr)

The long nightmare is over: The L Train is back. Says the MTA, "service between Broadway Junction and Manhattan resumed this afternoon, following repair work to components inside the Canarsie Tube, which connects the line between Manhattan's East Side and Brooklyn's Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods."

Woohoo! Glad to have you back. Expect delays today, though.

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P.S. Manhattan, this means you can come to our free screening of the Comedy at Knitting Factory on Sunday.

Pumping out the L Train tunnels, 11/5/2012 (via MTA's Flickr)

While Irene had brought the water within a foot or two of flooding the subway entrances and ventilation gratings, Sandy's fourteen-foot surges brought the water gushing in. Half of the subway system's fourteen under-river tubes flooded. A few filled up end to end, much like the MTA's Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. They couldn't even send workers out to assess them until after the second surge at the next high tide Tuesday morning.

Pumping began soon after -- or "dewatering," as the pumping industry calls it. Other city agencies had to rely on outside contractors to pump their tunnels. But it happens that the subway system already had its own toys. Each of the system's under-river tunnels has a sump to deal with everyday seepage, and each also has a tube fixed to the side called a discharge line. Starting Tuesday, the system sent in its "pump trains" -- diesel powered trains with five or six cars, run by just five or six workers. Underneath the trains are pumps, moving hundreds of gallons of water back into the river every minute. "You take the pump train and you bury the first car up to the floor level so it's underwater," Prendergast says, "and you hook it up to the discharge line and you start pumping the tunnel dry." -[NY Mag]

While service to most MTA subway lines, miraculously, has been restored following Hurricane Sandy, there is still no L train service to or in Manhattan which involves a whole lot of commuters (like NY1's Pat Kiernan and at a couple BV staff members). If you're wondering why it hasn't been restored yet, pictures from the MTA's very active Flickr account tell the story: they're still pumping flood waters out of the East River tunnel. Says the MTA:

MTA employees using a pump train are working around the clock to pump seawater out of the L train's tunnel under the East River. The tunnel was flooded during the unprecedented 13-foot storm surge of Hurricane Sandy. This photo shows activity on the afternoon of Monday, November 5.

After the tunnel is pumped dry of water, work will begin to inspect tracks, signals, switches, electrical components, and third rail. If any repairs are needed, employees will make them as quickly as possible to get service restored.

Meanwhile, there is still no G service at all. The tunnels are dry, however, and signal fixes are on their way, says the MTA. In the interim, the MTA is running more B62 buses (which have been crazy packed). More pictures of the work on the L train East River tunnel are below.

Continue reading "Still no L train service (or G for that matter), but MTA is working around the clock (pics)"

photos by Kurt Christensen

Since we last spoke to Kurt Christensen, he has continued to update his photo documentation of the mess Hurricane Sandy left in his Long Island town of Lindenhurst. It's not all bad though, this photo set contains images of people coming together to help others, which even in the worst of times is always a nice thing to see. Speaking of which, Patch has a list of ways people can volunteer in Babylon Village, and a list for Long Island in general.

On Saturday Kurt wrote:

Today restored my faith in humanity. From the massive response to the food and clothing drive at the firehouse, to the random people driving around handing out hot coffee, to the local businesses and Girl Scouts handing out meals on Wellwood, to the really cool group of people I met who drove down from Huntington with a grill and a load of burgers to hand out free food down on Shore Rd. This tragedy has really brought out the best in people.

And his photos are reaching far and wide:

After the first day these photos were up, I received a message from an Army CPT in Afghanistan who didn't know what happened to her family. I was able to visit them, and shoot a quick video of them, so they could let her know that they were all ok.

I also received a message from a woman who didn't know the fate of her family home, so I went and checked it out for her.

There is also a guy who reached out to me after he saw that the home his Grandfather built in the 1920's withstood the storm.

Check out the rest of this new set, below...

Continue reading "photos: Sandy destruction in Lindenhurst / Babylon (part 2)"

photos by Kurt Christensen

From 10/30:

..."The scene is pretty bad. Lots of homes with terrible flooding and damage. As I walked down Wellwood I watched as people walked with just a few garbage bags full of possessions. National Guard helicopters flew overhead. There was some looting in the area last night, and the National Guard is here to prevent that from happening tonight...

BrooklynVegan photographer Kurt Christensen lives with his wife and kid in Lindenhurst, NY, one of the many areas hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. Currently displaced due to the storm, Kurt has been documenting the experience in text and pictures on his Flickr. We're all thinking about him, and some of those pictures are in this post. Check them out below...

Continue reading "photos: Lindenhurst, NY after Hurricane Sandy"