2018 Reports

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority: Climate Adaptation Solutions Leading up to Hurricane Sandy

Yoon, Susan

Hurricane Sandy in 2012 caused about US$5 billion in damage to New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), disrupting one of the largest public transit systems in the world. Prior adaptation planning, including storm task forces, infrastructure upgrades, and emergency response protocols, helped reduce damage and enabled service restoration relatively quickly after the storm. The MTA implemented preparedness measures such as system-wide service suspension, equipment relocation, and flood protection. Despite these efforts, severe flooding of tunnels and stations revealed ongoing vulnerabilities in urban transportation infrastructure to extreme climate events.