Pardon my stupidity, how bad would the water getting into the subway be?
From what I understand, much of the electrical infrastructure of NYC is underground, so besides the subways being fuxored, I’d guess the electrical system in lower Manhattan will also be toast.
NY Stock Exchange and Mercantile Exchange might be impacted as well, which would be felt worldwide.
I've also read that many of said parts, if rendered unservicable for whatever reason, are not readily replaceable with off-the-shelf stuff.
Surely someone more knowledgeable can chime in, but lotsa folks might have some unscheduled time off this / next week, barring alternative transport arrangement.
The trains run on electricity. Once the tunnels are soaked in water, particularly the electrical controls and junction boxes, it will be very difficult and time consuming to dry them out and repair them sufficiently to get to get the trains going again. A previous poster pointed out that much of this is very old and spare parts for some of it will be very hard to get.
Worse, much of the city's electrical system goes through or near the same tunnels. Once soaked in salt water it seems certain that this will also be very difficult and time consuming to repair.
I suspect the city's fresh water pipes will be fine, but the pumps will stop when the electricity goes off. Same for the sewage system.
In other words, flooding the underground is much worse than the talking heads on TV seem to have figured out. I have no idea how long this will take to fix, but if these tunnels really fill up with water it won't be quick.