'A journey to nowhere': Ophelia’s watery wrath wreaks havoc for commuters, tourists, lawmakers

New Yorkers are facing submerged roadways and waterlogged train stations on Friday as rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia continues to blanket the region, leaving stranded commuters trying to figure out how to get home.

Commuters and critics alike said their experiences reflected poor planning by city and state officials and severe lack of communication in the face of a cascading situation.

The MTA suspended service along parts of nearly every subway line due to the torrential rainfall. MTA officials are expected to issue an update on conditions this evening.

Connor Jennings, 32, an artificial-intelligence researcher, said his normal 30-minute subway trip from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to his office near Union Square in Manhattan stretched into a two-hour odyssey that abruptly ended just a few blocks from where it began.

“It was a journey to nowhere,” said Jennings, who was stranded on a Q train just north of Seventh Avenue in Park Slope from about 9:45 a.m. until just before noon. He said the conductor and operator tried to provide updates about flooding conditions on the line that were causing the delay. Eventually, he said, the train managed to reach the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station, where passengers were able to exit.

Throughout the saga, he said no other officials offered any information about what was happening.

“There was zero information, it was all just word-of-mouth rumor from other fellow straphangers,” said Jennings.

Marquise Hicks, a 32-year-old from Harlem, was stranded at the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Brooklyn. He told Gothamist the cancellations began when he got off the A train at the station, where he'd hoped to transfer to the F train and go to work at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

“How am I going to tell my boss this? They don’t care. I don’t know even know what to do,” he said. “I guess I’m gonna walk in the rain. I have to pick up my check.”

For tourists, the commute was made more confusing by garbled announcements from lackluster sound systems.

Andy Gunser was at the Port Authority subway station in Midtown, hoping to catch a train to Penn Station and then to JFK Airport so he could fly home to Germany.

“The sound boxes are very poor,” said Gunser. “We can’t understand anything and we only find our way by asking people.”

City Councilmember Gale Brewer of Manhattan posted on X that she was stuck on a 2 train on the Upper West Side for hours at midday. She said she was on her way to City Hall for a 4 p.m. bill signing by the mayor that was canceled while she was en route.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn found himself stranded at Penn Station on Friday morning after taking an Amtrak train back from an event in Ulster County, New York, on Thursday night.

He told Gothamist that MTA workers were shouting on megaphones to try to offer commuters alternatives for reaching their destinations.

Like many others, he tried to plot a route out of Midtown, only to find that his subway lines back to Brooklyn were canceled or severely delayed.

“The alternative is paying $110, which is the current rate to get a rideshare [vehicle] back to Brooklyn, and I imagine many New Yorkers are having a similar experience,” Myrie said.

At the same time, he was seeing online images from his district, where floodwaters swamped portions of the Prospect Expressway at the Caton Avenue overpass.

Prospect Expressway from Caton Ave overpass. At least two cars stuck. pic.twitter.com/CfByXPZshX

— David J. Meyer (@dahvnyc) September 29, 2023

Myrie, who has been floated as a possible primary challenger against Mayor Eric Adams, blasted the administration’s level of readiness for the storm, citing work done two years ago to improve storm preparedness following Hurricane Ida.

“Here we are again, caught flat-footed and potentially with millions of dollars in property damage, lost time, and hopefully not any lost lives,” Myrie told Gothamist.

“You can't blame this on Gov. [Greg] Abbott, you can't blame this on President [Joe] Biden,” Myrie added, taking a direct swipe at Adams and how he's defended the city’s handling of the migrant crisis. “We knew exactly what was coming. We were ill-prepared for it and we're now feeling the consequences of it, and I think New Yorkers are fed up.”

Additional reporting by Stephen Nessen and Charles Lane.

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What you need to know

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• Gov. Hochul declared a state of emergency in New York City.
• The subway system is still recovering from flooding, but the MTA says it "could have been worse."
• "If anyone was caught off guard, they had to be living under a rock," Mayor Adams said defensively during an interview on 1010 WINS later Friday evening.
• Stranded commuters said their experiences reflected poor planning by city and state officials and severe lack of communication in the face of a cascading situation.
• Here's an updating list of closures and delays affecting mass transit, roads and flights.
• Here’s what to do if you're experiencing flooding in your home or neighborhood.