New York City commuters are bracing for potential flooding from heavy rain Thursday evening, just hours after an unrelated power outage snarled the morning rush hour.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended service on multiple lines as crews investigated a loss of electricity to signals near West 4th Street-Washington Square in Manhattan. Other lines were delayed as trains rerouted or skipped stops to avoid the outage.
The disruptions come as thunderstorms are forecast to descend on New York City later in the day, threatening to disrupt transit and inundate roads just as workers leave their offices for the home-bound commute.
The storms will usher in a drier, cooler weekend after days of hot and humid conditions. Rain could fall at rates of 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour and total as much as 5 inches in some areas, the National Weather Service said. Washington will also be hit by downpours, with flood watches in effect from Connecticut to Virginia.
“All indications are heavy rain is definitely going to move into New York City,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. “It looks like it is going to be potentially high impact, but the devil is in the details.”
New York City commuters have faced problematic journeys throughout the week, including a Tuesday outage that threw several lines into disarray. The city’s transit system, which serves a ridership of about 4 million on weekdays, is aging and has suffered years of neglect.
About 40% of its power substations are in poor or marginal condition and its signaling system is from the 1930s. The MTA’s 2025-2029 capital plan includes $5.4 billion to update 75 miles (120 kilometers) of subway signals. Another $4 billion will replace or rehabilitate power substations.
Thursday’s rain threatens to flood subways, streets and low-level apartments and storefronts, while high winds from the storm could trigger power outages. Earlier this month, torrential downpours in New York City and the surrounding region snarled transit and touched off hundreds of flight cancellations. But because forecasters can’t predict exactly where the storms will develop, some locations could be drenched while others escape the deluge.
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