In brooklyn is connected to it. It was totally filled with water. Both tubes, from one end to the other, from the manhattan end to the brooklyn end. Ere were close to 100 million gallons of water that had to be pumped out of that tunnel and its still not back up to snuff. Thats one of many examples. Theres so many. The mta did a very good job. I want to congratulate joe lhota. They moved their Rolling Stock to high ground. Tried to barricade this awful flood in the best way they could. Boy, its awful. The mta is the largest Public Transportation system in the country. Its the life blood of new york. Its our circulatory system. 3. 5 Million People g on and off Manhattan Island every day to work. Wow. 3. 5 Million People. I guess thats more than the people in mississippi and probably more than the people in dade county, any way. And we depend on it. 2. 63 billion trips a year. As i said, the mta took a lot of necessary precautions. But this is 108yearold system. Its the first major subway system in america. And it was never subject, as you noted correctly, senator nelson, with the full moon, the high tide and the huge storm. Never hadnything like this. The mta tried to put up barriers. In many cases they worked. In other cases like the beautiful and new south ferry station right near the World Trade Center, the barriers re just knocked over by the high winds and flying debris. This one subway station, south ferry, is going to cost over 00 million, nearly 600 million to repair. Many more underwater tunnels that connected the systems together gone. Saltwater, which, of course, is corrosive to the switches, tracks and everything else. Theres lots of permanent damage. The system is still not running up to snuff. Theres two points i would like to make to this committee. The first, we need help with mitigation. We cant just rebuild a 108yearold system andeplace it with the parts that existed then. Most of then dont exist anymore, and it doesnt make much sense to redo it exactly as it is, god forbid if theres another flood like this. We need help with mitigation to make it stronger and better. I know senator wicker understands this. I think it passed by one vote, i was that vote in the well of the house when he and thad cochran came to me, they had to move a freight line away from the floodplain in mississippi. It cost close to 1 billion. We understand the need for mi mitigation now. You cant replace what has been damaged. Even if you could, you wouldnt want to. You want to make sure the next storm that occurs, now th were so much the wiser, senator nelson, we wanted to make sure were much more floodproof. So were going to need all kinds of things. Inflatable plugs, station seals at vulnerable points should be part of the federal propal. So, first point, we need help not just in replacement but in mitigation. It only makes sense in a large, old but vital system like this. Second point, we need some flexibility, which is related. And the good news is that we have in a vehicle thats available that is the Public TransportationEmergency Relief Program, fema has done a good job by in large. There are lots of mistakes, but fema is doing its best under difficult circumstances. But theyre not expert on transportation. And marry landeu told us down in the gulf area it was much better to deal with the federal transportation administration, which would be dealt with if we put money into the public transportaon Emergency Relief Program. Its an authorized program. We did it last year in the transportation bill, but the cupboard is bare. Theres no money in it. We all understand that under the stafford act we get these dollars, the mt is a public system. It would be much better to put it under fta. Theublic transportation Emergency Relief Program. Because they provide grants to states and Public Transportation systems to protect, repair and replace equipment thats been damaged by a natural disaster, but congress created this program to create flexibility. Despite what fema has tried to do iour localities, fema is bound by the law to replace things to a previous condition, and that doesnt make sense. The combination of having mitigation monies and doing it through the Emergency Relief Program, transportation messa Emergency Relief Program makes sense. New orleans was forced to buy old buses. That made no sense. We need flexibility. Thats why we need an fta emergency relief account. Bottom line in conclusion, new york has no choice. We have to simultaneously rebuild and adapt to protect against future storms. We are a waterfront region. New york and new jersey is a waterfront region. Its bome clear were in the path of violent new weather realities and we have to adapt. I want to thank the chair and the committee for the opportunity to speak. Thank you very much, senator schumer. Senator menendez . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I particularly want to say that your leadership in this committee and the Appropriations Committee is going to be so critical to the reconstruction of new jersey and we appreciate not only your leadership in those position but the leadership youve shown alongside those of white house are trying to restore the lives of new jerseyans. So youre critically important to our collective success for the region. I appreciate the comments of the Ranking Member, senator wicker and nelson, as someone who has stood with the people o mississippi and florida each and every time theres been an issue of devastation and recovery, im heartened to hear the remarks that you both made, because its critically important to the people of new jersey now. We dont have that experience. This is the first time we had the experience. I lived in the state my whole life, i have never seen the b d bredth and scope of devastatn. I appreciate to give one or two dimensions of that. There are many, but for the purposes of this hearing. The numbers are staggering across the region. We lost 34 lives during the storm. It was the largest mass transit disaster in our nations history, in our nations history. 4 out of 10 of the nations transit riders, of the nations transit riders had their commutes disrupted by the storm. Many of them still do today. New Jersey Transit alone had dozens of locomotives and railcars damaged in the flooding. Miles and miles of tracks daged. The preliminary damage estimate is now up to about 37 billion. We are getting more damage numbers, but the total toll transportation and commerce is truly incalculable. The port of new york and new jersey, most of it is on the new jersey side is the mega port of the east coast. 250,000 jobs, 25 billion to 30 billion of Economic Activity for the nation suffered widespread damage. Ships were unloading during the course of the storm, b a full recovery from the damage caused on theorts will take much longer. The storm surge grew to 14 feet, winds were about 90 miles per ho, pore than 700 Cargo Containers were damaged when the surge and high winds toppled the containers on to another. In thispicture, you can see half of the rt authority barge was lifted on to a berth in red ho hook. In jersey cy, a float was used to move Railroad Cars broke in half. 150 feet of Railroad Track was washed away. Cargo handling cranes and other pieces of equipment were severely damaged. This is also important to National Security issues, in the last background, the only port in bayonne, new jersey was closed, so the use of commercial port for forward projection for the east coast is the port of new york and new jersey. When it cannot operate, its part of a National Security imperative as well. The Trucking Industry lost about 1,000 rigs to flooding at the port and other locations where they were parked which is about 25 of all of the truck fleet that serves the port region. About 16,000 cars were destroyed. Total loss in the tangled mess of colored met scraps is a mix of cars and hundreds of motorcycles destroyed by the storm. Over 50 ships were diverted that were headed for new york and new jersey. Those ships were carrying over 15,000 Cargo Containers and almost 10,000 automobiles. Thats just one dimension. As far as other transportation damage up and down the new jersey coast, the sheer scope of the damage is difficult to fathom. This next pictures the bridge that crosses barnegat bay and crosses brick with mantoloking this is how some of the greatest destruction of the homes in that region. Amazingly the bridge can be repaired, but many of the surrounding homes were lost, part of that highway will need to be rebuilt. This next picture is a shipping container where and a large pleasure boat crossed on to the morgan rail bridge on the north jersey coastline along with tons of debris, obviously killing a main artery of the states riders. It took a lot of work to restore service on new Jersey Transit which suffered disruptions on every rail line. Even today, as we speak, the Port Authoritys path terminal, the subway between new york and new jersey under the hudson river is inoperable and will not be back on line for some time. Those are tens of thousands of riders every day that are effected and obviously not only their commutes but the cost of their commutes is dramatically growing in theidst of a challenging economic time. Corrosive sea water rushed into the path stations at Exchange Place in hoboken a the hoboken station may still not be reopened for weeks. So, mrchairman, thats one dimension on transportation. We lost thousands of homes. We have thousands of people who are out of a home. Im not talking about a second home. Many people think about the new jersey shore and they think thats about second homes. No, these are yearround communities where people have made their lives and their investments and now seen it wra washed away. They dont have a place to come back home to. Ths why its critically important, the work of this committee and to ask our colleagues as we have stood with the people of the gulf coast and Hurricane Katrina and in florida, the people of joplin, missouri after a tornado ravaged their community, when the mississippi flooded, when crops were destroyed in the midwest, we have been there. Since this is the United States of america, we need you to be with us. Thank you very much, senator menendez. Senator gillibrand, relatively new here, but in real fighting form whenever it comes to the needs of ourregion and your state, obviously. Were pleased to have you here. Please, ur testimony. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you Committee Members for attending today. You know better than anyone, mr. Chairman, how sere this storm was and the type of destruction that was wrought throughout new york, new jersey, connecticut. We are still suffering gravely. There are still families that cannot return to their homes. There are businesses in the early stages of figuring out how to rebuild. The were so many lives lost so many families torn apart. I can tell you this is the job of the federal government. It isur job to protect people. It is our job to help communities rebuild when there are natural disasters that local governments just cant afford to be able to pay for on their own. Now, new york has been working very hard to come up with a plan about how to rebuild. But the transportation infrastructure has taken an unbelievable beating. In new york alone, 2,000 miles of roads were destroyed or damage 11 tunnels were flooded. And our our city and our state really relies on mass transit. We are the number one users of mass transit in the country. And with our Mass Transit System, miles of tracks and tunnels were flooded with corrosive saltwater. 12 subway ations were damaged or destroyed, 500,000 transit riders are still experiencing severe disruptions. You will have the mta chairman come in which is fantastic. He can give you the nuts and bolts of the loss, the repairs, a lot of service is up and running now, b longterm repairs must be done. The storm just filled up the subways. When we builthese subways 100 years ago, they could not have imagined this kind of flooding or storm. So the water just rushed in that corrosive saltwater did effect the Electrical Systems and the ability to get the stations back up and running. Its a massive undertaking. The initial estimates are that just fixing our Mass Transit System could cost about 5 billion. You can see the extent of the kind of damage and how much it really takes to do. This is our rail system. These are the rockaway track the tracks are just washed out. So, if you notice about the geography of new york state and new york city, we have rail lines coming in and out of new york state, straight up, straight west, straight east, they are essential for new yorkers to get to work. New york city is a city of 8 Million People, but millions come into new york city every day by road or by rail. Thats the kind of work that needs to be done just to get our city up and running again. I wont give much more detail, he rely on the testimony thats been given previously and the testimony that is to come. But i just want to emphasize for our colleagues, the reason why these hearings matter is because the rest of congress, the rest of the senate has not necessarily been to new york since the storm. They havent seen the devastation in these communities. They have not seen the destruction caused to so many families so many businesses. You know, weve seen storms before. Weve seen storms across the country. Weve seen wildfires, tornados. We saw what happened with Hurricane Katrina. So we know what suffering looks like. And i can tell yo new york has never suffered on this level because of a natur disaster, ever. So to have the abity and wherewithal to bin to rebuild will mean that we will rely on the federal government. So i wanted to thank you for holding this heari. I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell these stories and show you what really happened in new york. Thank you. Thank you very mu. Senat senator klobuchar, you requested an opportunity for a statement. I wanted to thank all four of you, mr. Chairman as well as senator menendez, senator schumer, and i specifically talked to senator gillibrand at length about this. I know having some version of this in minnesota with flooding in the red river valley, and everybody remembers grand forks, we had similar close calls with fargo and moorhead, what this is like for the families. I appreciate how yourought this home to us in terms of the effects of people. What i remember is new york state and new jersey and the rest of the country stood by minnesota and north dakota when we had our Severe Weather and our severe floods, or when the 35w bridge collapsed. We were able to rebuild that bridge within a year. We saw firsthand what that was like to have a major infrastructure destruction within our city. Its important during a time of divisiveness that we sta together and stand for those effected by this horrible storm. I do know that our Minnesota National guard has been out there. We consider them the best guard in the country, senator gillibrand, mr. Chairman. Theyve been out there helping. And i think thats just much of the spirit that we bring here. And we all have to understand that just as importantly as giving those emergency supplies to people, re now at the next stage. We are at the stage of we building. Rebuilding means rebuilding infr next, we will hear testimony from the head of amtrak and new Jersey Transit. This is about 45 minutes. We know that you have so much on your hands. The one thing i want to make sure its make certain we understood is the magnitude of the support teams that came in from all over the country. The fact that it took some time to get things going. The devastation was so enormous that when we look back, a lot was done in a relatively short time. You each have major transportation responsibilities and we are glad to have you as experts testifying so you can keep your statements within five minutes, we will allow you a couple of seconds, but otherwise, i would ask you do that. Did it amtrac get a new name . What are we calling the organization . The infrastructure and a Investment Development line for the northeast . The official title . Good old and track. Americas railroad. I would like to acknowledge the deputy transportation dead that before transportation. We have testimony and i would ask that the place in the record. Coming from where each of you has had to be in the past weeks, i know there has to be a enormous frustration and heartbreaks in what you have seen and how each of you understand. What is the penalty for having systems that cannot operate or for having used judgment and reaction to the storm and i think good decisions, we will explore them a little bit just to see what we can find out. The president and ceo of amtrak talked about the damage to amtrak correctly and how we can protect our rail system in the future. Thank you for your support of amtrak for some years. We understand what you do and but we thank all of the senators here. I will be very brief. It also impacts both other senators here. Senator weicker, your city of new orleans and the Crescent Service was unable to complete their trips because of what happened in new york city. They could not make the transfer, no matter what the case was to get to new york city and this was a time of year when as families scattered across the country are bonded by the ability of amtrak to move them. That is not something that is captured here. When we look at what we lost in terms of revenue, we are