Would a flood in the NYC subway drown or electrocute me?

November 16, 2006 3:13 PM

OK, theoretical and perverse question. A bizarre event begins to flood the New York City subway. The event will quickly submerge everything in the system, completely filling it with water. Do the people in the cars die by drowning, electrocution, or something else? What about the people on the platforms? (this question was thought up during a morbid, yet somehow pleasing, commute on the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn.)
posted by soulbarn to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

I'd guess that the circuit breakers would pretty rapidly shut down the electricity to the rails so electrocution is probably out. Cars do have emergency escape windows/doors so people could at least start to get out and in most places there are emergency escape stairways in the tunnels. I guess if the water was fast enough, drowning, otherwise old age.
posted by Skorgu at 3:23 PM on November 16, 2006

Response by poster: ok, what if the circuit breakers fail?
posted by soulbarn at 3:36 PM on November 16, 2006

From what I understand from news articles that I can't seem to find anymore, they've got some pretty wicked pumps in subway tunnels, and there are emergency doors that they can use to segment the system to keep the entire system from flooding. The entire island would have to be flooding for the subway system to completely flood, and in that case the subways would be the least of the city's worries.
posted by SpecialK at 3:37 PM on November 16, 2006

You only get electrocuted if electricity flows through you (usually from your hands to earth). In a flooded subway tunnel it would go from the live rail through the water to the ground (and/or completing the circuit to the running rails), never passing through the passengers.
posted by cillit bang at 3:39 PM on November 16, 2006

i don't see the electricity staying on long enough to pose an electrocution threat. if some burning newspapers can take out massive chunks of the system, a system-wide flood is certainly going to do the same.

lower tunnels, especially ones under the river, would flood first and take longer to evacuate, so assuming a rapid flood event, you might see some drowning there.

platforms? maybe ones like the N and the F around Lex. that are both deep and have only one or two stairways, but most of them are relatively shallow. even the deeper ones at 34th have a lot of exits, so evacuation wouldn't be as tricky there.

if this happens on a weekend, you personally are safe, as the L won't even be running.

on preview: killjoys!
posted by sonofslim at 3:43 PM on November 16, 2006

ok, what if the circuit breakers fail?

If the circuit breakers fail, you'll see the weakest parts of the distribution system light on fire or possibly even explode, which will have the same effect of cutting the supply to the third rail.

I'd think the people on the platforms are mostly fine, assuming a reasonable rate of flooding. There's emergency lights there even if the main lighting system fails. A few people would still probably manage to die.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 3:51 PM on November 16, 2006

Ummmm...if that's true, cillit bang, how did this happen?
posted by limeonaire at 3:52 PM on November 16, 2006

Ummmm...if that's true, cillit bang, how did this happen?

It doesn't have any details of how the thing was wired up, but a couple of key differences that come to mind is that with a pool, it's possible for the water to be isolated from earth, and the small volume of water means it's possible to set it up so that a large proportion of current passes through the swimmer's body. Neither of those things hold for a large scale flood with grounded running rails the length of the tunnel.
posted by cillit bang at 5:01 PM on November 16, 2006