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Originally Posted by ASTalumna06
They actually announced last night that they were shutting them down. There's also mandatory evacuations for hospitals and nusring homes around that area. Many New Yorkers in certain areas of the city have been told to leave, as well.
They actually shut down the Garden State Parkway tonight at 8, a little farther south of here, not allowing anyone to head toward the Jersey shore.
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The possibility of shutting down mass transit (including subway, bus, and commuter rail) was brought up last night. It wasn't until this afternoon, however, that the decision was made to shut the entire system down. Even if the storm doesn't pass through--which is looking extremely unlikely at this point--the system wouldn't be back and running normally until Monday afternoon. So, a lot of offices are going to be closed. I prepared for this by bringing home work that doesn't require power. My boss did not give us an emergency plan--again, a lot of people think that this is not going to be a big deal at all.
As far as the evacuations go--only the hospitals and nursing homes in the low-lying areas, the ones in the mandatory evacuation area are being cleared out. Most of NYC is actually not in a flood zone at all. My neighborhood is about 200' above sea level. Much of Lower Manhattan was built as infill, so it wasn't surprising that those areas were evacuated early.
Honestly? Most New Yorkers think this is going to blow away at the last minute. We've had "Storms of the Century" that turn out to be pretty small, so some people, especially natives, have become extremely jaded. The problem is that NYC is an old city with an old infrastructure. The subways can shut down over more than 2" of rainfall! I grew up in Florida and we don't mess around.