Fixing NYC's subway after Sandy

Despite precautionary measures taken as Hurricane Sandy advanced (including blocking off subway entrances and shutting down mass transit), the damage to New York City's subway system was widespread. Many New Yorkers do not own personal vehicles and depend on public transportation. In 2011, 1.6 billion people rode the NYC subway.

Officials began to assess the damage to the nation's largest subway system on Oct. 30, 2012. All 10 tunnels in lower Manhattan, which connect the borough to Brooklyn and parts of Queens, were flooded in what MTA chairman Joe Lhota told WCBS-TV was the "most devastating" event in the system's 108-year history.

Left: The original water line in the Cranberry Street Tunnel, which carries the A and C trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan underneath the East River, after the events of superstorm Sandy on Nov. 2, 2012.

Credit: MTA New York City Transit/Leonard Wiggins