Quote:
Hearings Loom On Decision To Leave One Third Of New Jersey Transit Trains In Hoboken And Kearney During Sandy
As the legislative and federal investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures continue, Governor Christie’s administration is now facing another potentially damaging probe, as a state Senate panel prepares to launch hearings to examine why NJ Transit left a third of its fleet in low-lying rail yards during Superstorm Sandy.
...(The) chairman of the Legislative Oversight Committee said on Friday afternoon that he received clearance...to begin hearings into how nearly 400 pieces of NJ Transit rail cars and locomotives were left in flood-prone yards in Hoboken and Kearny, resulting in $120 million in damage.
...(He) said he heard about the explanation Christie offered...last year: that a rogue, low-level employee moved the equipment to the yards on his own, without telling NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein.
...(But) Weinstein...has said that the agency moved trains into the rail yards because it never expected them to flood and that data available showed the chances of flooding were small...
NJ Transit did commission a $46,000 report that advised on how to protect its infrastructure for a variety of severe weather events resulting from climate change, including hurricanes. The agency received the report four months prior to Sandy making landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012, but Weinstein told legislators he didn’t really study the report...
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So why was the plan ignored, especially when it was most likely commissioned as a result of Hoboken being flooded by Hurricane Irene in August of 2011? And once again, Christie finds himself at the mercy of a treacherous employee who didn't report to him directly? Woe is him!