[Senate Hearing 112-761]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-761
RECOVERING FROM SUPERSTORM SANDY: REBUILDING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
of the
COMMITTEE ON
BANKING,HOUSING,AND URBAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO PUBLIC TRANSIT AND HOUSING IN THE NEW YORK-NEW
JERSEY REGION FOLLOWING SUPERSTORM SANDY AND ACTIONS NEEDED TO
STRENGTHEN THE REGION'S INFRASTRUCTURE TO PREVENT DEVASTATION FROM
FUTURE SUPERSTORMS
__________
DECEMBER 20, 2012
__________
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COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota, Chairman
JACK REED, Rhode Island RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey BOB CORKER, Tennessee
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
JON TESTER, Montana MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia MARK KIRK, Illinois
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon JERRY MORAN, Kansas
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
KAY HAGAN, North Carolina
Dwight Fettig, Staff Director
William D. Duhnke, Republican Staff Director
Dawn Ratliff, Chief Clerk
Levon Bagramian, Hearing Clerk
Shelvin Simmons, IT Director
Jim Crowell, Editor
______
Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey, Chairman
JIM DeMINT, South Carolina, Ranking Republican Member
JACK REED, Rhode Island MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York BOB CORKER, Tennessee
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio MARK KIRK, Illinois
JON TESTER, Montana JERRY MORAN, Kansas
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Michael Passante, Subcommittee Staff Director
Jeff Murray, Republican Subcommittee Staff Director
Hal Connolly, Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012
Page
Opening statement of Chairman Menendez........................... 1
Opening statements, comments, or prepared statements of:
Senator Schumer
Prepared statement....................................... 22
WITNESSES
Peter Rogoff, Federal Transit Administrator, Federal Transit
Administration................................................. 3
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Yolanda Chavez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs,
Office of Community Planning and Development, Department of
Housing and Urban Development.................................. 5
Prepared statement........................................... 25
James Weinstein, Executive Director, NJ TRANSIT Corporation...... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 29
Thomas F. Prendergast, President, MTA New York City Transit,
Metropolitan Transportation Authority.......................... 14
Prepared statement........................................... 31
Patrick J. Foye, Executive Director, Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey................................................. 16
Prepared statement........................................... 32
(iii)
RECOVERING FROM SUPERSTORM SANDY: REBUILDING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation,
and Community Development,
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met at 11 a.m. in room SD-538, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Robert Menendez, Chairman of the
Subcommittee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN ROBERT MENENDEZ
Senator Menendez. Good morning. Let me welcome everyone to
today's hearing discussing the unprecedented challenges our
region's public transit and housing face as a result of
Superstorm Sandy.
It has been an incredibly tough morning. We started the day
with a hearing on the loss of our Ambassador in Libya and those
challenges, and then, of course, we just had an opening
ceremony for Senator Inouye lying in state. And now we come to
the devastation that the Northeast region has. So it has been a
tough day, but we appreciate our witnesses' being here to help
us shed some light and hopefully some commitment by our
colleagues to meeting our challenges.
As you all know, Sandy's destructive force overwhelmed the
region, and particularly in New Jersey and New York, and the
result is damage on a massive, unprecedented scale.
Unprecedented but, unfortunately, this was our second hurricane
in 2 years, and we expect extreme weather like this to become
more common for our region.
Because we need to prepare for the next storm, it is not
enough for us to spend our time today simply discussing how we
restore our housing and transit infrastructure to their
vulnerable pre-storm condition. In my view, now is the time to
determine what actions we must take in order to build back the
region in a way that makes us less vulnerable in future storms.
The term we use in Washington to describe this is
``mitigation.'' But I do not think that word makes clear enough
the critical task we are pursuing here. This is about
rebuilding in a smarter, better, and stronger way. We should
learn from the important lessons in the gulf after Hurricane
Katrina. Transit agencies lost buses in the storm, and when
these transit agencies started speaking with FEMA about
replacing those buses, FEMA said they could not buy new buses.
They had to buy used buses of roughly the same age to replace
those buses.
So these agencies were put in the absurd position of
scouring the country trying to find someone who would sell them
old buses. But with mitigation funding, we can pay for a new
bus to replace the old one, and this same principle applies to
rail transit. Hoboken PATH Station was badly flooded, and it is
coming back to service weeks after the storm.
Should we put that station back together with the same
exact vulnerability to flooding? Or should we rebuild in a way
that would prevent such extensive flood damage in the future?
Of course, we should rebuild to protect against future
storms. It seems to me that it is not only common sense, but
for my friends who are fiscal hawks, the reality is that it is
far more fiscally responsible to ultimately ensure that we do
not have repetitive loss, that we do not have economic
consequences, and that we do not have human consequences as a
result of just simply going back to that which was. With a
smart investment, we can prevent hundreds of millions of future
damages to our transit system.
To understand the importance of rebuilding in a way that
hardens our infrastructure and makes us more resilient, let me
begin by laying out some facts about the damage to our region.
Based on preliminary estimates--and I underscore that--over
300,000 homes in New Jersey alone were damaged, over 20,000
homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable, and we fear the
final numbers will be much higher. The preliminary damage
estimate provided by my State alone is up to $36.9 billion in
damage. I have lived in New Jersey my whole life, and I have
never, ever seen the type of devastation we have now.
I would like to tell you the story of just one of many of
the homeowners who lost so much. Geri Lynch works as a realtor
and lived in Oceanport for 10 years in a modest bungalow
cottage. When word of the storm came, she evacuated with her
car and as many possessions as she could. Her house was nearly
destroyed with water rising to 4 feet, and it is still not
clear if it will be totally torn down or repaired and put on
higher stilts. And she does not yet know if she will have the
money to do that.
She says that practically the only houses in her
neighborhood that survived were the ones that were built on
higher stilts, which is exactly why we need resiliency in our
rebuilding.
So now she is living in FEMA housing until the end of
December, and she does not know where she will be after that.
She says that in the interim she is relying on friends and
family and community to help her. She has a remarkably positive
attitude despite all she has been through, which is exactly why
New Jersey will come back from this stronger than ever. But if
we do not have a robustly funded Community Development Block
Grant program (CDBG), the funding for her to rebuild stronger
simply may not be there.
To illustrate just how serious the housing damage was up
and down the Jersey shore, I would like to share these images
from Union Beach, New Jersey, where homes, cars, and people's
very lives were just totally destroyed. Sandy was one of the
largest mass transit disasters in our Nation's history. Four
out of ten of the Nation's transit riders had their commuters
disrupted. In my home State of New Jersey, our public
transportation network was completely devastated by Sandy. New
Jersey Transit, which carries more than 900,000 riders daily,
suffered damage to all 12 of its rail lines. Miles of track and
roadbed were washed out. Electrical substations were flooded
and destroyed. Hundreds of cars and locomotives were submerged,
some suffering irreparable damage.
The PATH System, which carries 77 million people between
New Jersey and Manhattan each year, was brought to a halt by
the flooding. The Hoboken Station in New Jersey, which provides
service to about 30,000 people daily, reopened to the public
only yesterday, more than a month and a half after Sandy made
landfall.
To help illustrate just how serious the flooding was, I
would like to share this image from PATH security cameras
showing corrosive seawater rushing into the Hoboken PATH
Station.
And in New York, where public transit carries more than 8
million riders each day, the damage was unprecedented. Sandy
shut down the entire MTA system for only the second time in its
108-year history. Eight subway tunnels were flooded, some from
floor to ceiling, and 12 subway stations suffered major damage
or were destroyed entirely.
Again, I want to stress the importance of investing now so
we do not have to pay again the next time this happens. Where
tracks need to be raised, we should raise them. Where subway
stations need to be reinforced against flood waters, we should
reinforce them. And where electrical substations need to be
protected and elevated, let us protect and elevate them. The
one thing we do not want is to find ourselves back in this room
when the next major weather event strikes our region.
So, with that, seeing no other Members here at this point--
some may come and, of course, we are on the Sandy recovery
legislation as we speak--I want to introduce our first two
witnesses, and I would ask you each to limit your testimony to
roughly about 5 minutes, although your entire written testimony
will be included in the record.
The Honorable Peter Rogoff is the Administrator of the
Federal Transit Administration. As someone whom the Committee
knows very well and admires and is an able leader in this
crisis, I look forward to hearing from him today about the
Public Transportation Emergency Relief program that the Banking
Committee helped create and how that will help our region
recover in the months ahead.
Ms. Yolanda Chavez is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Grant Programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and she is here to discuss how the Community
Development Block Grant program can be used to quickly and
flexibly provide relief following Superstorm Sandy.
And with that, Mr. Administrator.
STATEMENT OF PETER ROGOFF, FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATOR,
FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
Mr. Rogoff. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me here today to review
Hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on public transportation
and discuss the Obama administration's budget request for
assistance through the FTA newly authorized Public Transit
Emergency Relief program.
As you pointed out in your opening statement, Mr. Chairman,
Hurricane Sandy triggered the worst transit disaster in the
history of the United States. On the Tuesday morning following
the storm, more than half of the Nation's daily transit riders
were without service. And even in the days that followed, as
services in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington,
D.C., came back online, still 37 percent, well more than a
third, of the Nation's transit riders were without service.
We applaud the outstanding and tireless efforts of
emergency responders throughout the region who worked together
with all the affected transportation agencies to restore as
much service as quickly as possible.
FTA and the broader Department of Transportation also have
been proactively engaged throughout this event. We were, even
before the storm hit, in regular electronic touch with many of
the transportation leaders, the Governors, and impacted mayors
up in the region in terms of preparation, including some of the
members that are on your second panel.
FTA also, after the storm, worked with FEMA and the GSA to
procure well over 200 buses to provide for mobility of
thousands of New Jersey residents as a result of the loss of
rail service.
I personally got on the phone to secure some donated buses
from other less impacted transit agencies, and we got on email
as well as the phone to try and scare up some very hard to find
but desperately needed equipment, which we found in Chicago and
shipped out right away in order to get the PATH service back up
and running.
That said, there is still a great deal more to be done.
President Obama's supplemental request for disaster assistance
seeks $60.4 billion in Federal resources for response,
recovery, and mitigation. The Department of Transportation's
share of the request is $12.07 billion, and of that, $11.7
billion, the majority portion, would directly support the FTA's
effort to repair and replace the affected public transit
infrastructure and make it more resilient.
These funds would be administered through FTA's new Public
Transportation Emergency Relief program, and I want to thank
you, Mr. Chairman, and the rest of the Senate Banking Committee
for its leadership in establishing this program in MAP-21 just
a few months ago. The Administration requested this program in
our budget and our policy priorities for reauthorization--you
may recall I testified on its behalf before the Committee in
May of 2011. We are also very grateful to the Senate
Appropriations Committee for responding to the President's
request for aid under this new program. The support of both
Committees was both timely and prescient, as our new emergency
relief program strengthens FTA's authority to provide financial
disaster assistance to transit agencies in times of greatest
need and to better coordinate with our partners at FEMA.
FTA's request reflects two major priorities:
First, we are requesting $6.2 billion in aid to repair and
restore public transportation infrastructure in the affected
areas of New York, New Jersey, also lesser amounts, obviously,
in places like Connecticut and other States along the Eastern
seaboard.
FTA's staff and contractors are now working side by side
under a FEMA mission assignment to conduct damage assessment
and cost validation work for both operating and capital costs
needed to restore and rebuild transit capacity. These early
joint efforts should allow us to compensate the impacted
transit agencies promptly once assistance is made available by
Congress. This was sort of a first-time effort to get FTA
contractors, FTA staff, and FEMA people working side by side to
do cost validation quickly and in concert with one another so
we have one common cost estimate and the ability to compensate
people more rapidly.
Second, the Administration is requesting $5.5 billion to
make transit facilities more resilient to better withstand
severe coastal flooding and other weather-related challenges.
This country and its people cannot afford to endure the loss of
life and property that occurs when catastrophic events repeat
themselves over and over again. The sums needed to harden
transit systems to protect them from such disasters can be far
less than the cost to repair and restore them multiple times.
Under our budget request, funds invested in projects to
mitigate against future disasters will be guided by regional
response plans with guidance and assistance from FTA and other
Federal agencies along with State and local governments.
Indeed, regional cooperation will be absolutely critical to
this effort. President Obama, as you know, this month
established a Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force under the
leadership of HUD Secretary Donovan.
The Deputy Secretary of Transportation, John Porcari, and I
went up to New York just last week to sit with the heads of NJ
TRANSIT, the MTA, representatives from Amtrak, as well as the
Port Authority, to start the regional discussion off to make
sure that folks are working in a cooperative way, to make sure
that they identify and we have a process to identify the most
cost-effective mitigation efforts.
It is going to be critical that the regions, the two
States, all the agencies work well together on this. It is
really quite possible that, if not done correctly, one
mitigation investment could worsen the potential damage on a
neighboring transit asset. This really needs to be done in a
coordinated fashion that bridges all of the local players, all
of the local agencies, State and local government to make sure
that the impacts of Hurricane Sandy do not repeat themselves.
I see I am already over my time, so with that I will submit
the rest of the statement for the record. Thank you.
Senator Menendez. Thank you, Administrator.
Madam Secretary.
STATEMENT OF YOLANDA CHAVEZ, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
GRANT PROGRAMS, OFFICE OF COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT,
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Ms. Chavez. Good morning, Chairman Menendez, Members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
regarding recovering from Superstorm Sandy. In my role as
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs at HUD, I am
responsible for the Community Development Block Grant program,
better known as CDBG, the CDBG-Disaster Recovery grants, and
the HOME program. The CDBG Disaster Recovery program is
critical in helping communities recover from and rebuild after
natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy.
This morning I will discuss Sandy's impact on housing and
the work that HUD has started and will continue through CDBG
for long-term recovery in the region. Additional details on
these points and on Secretary Donovan's role as head of the
President's Sandy Recovery Task Force are provided in my
written testimony.
Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter that followed have had
massive and varied impacts along the Atlantic coast from
Virginia to Rhode Island. Especially hard hit were New York and
New Jersey, two of our Nation's critical economic engines.
One of the major effects of storms like Sandy is damage to
homes and apartments and the displacement of families and
individuals. Excluding second homes, more than 150,000 housing
units experienced substantial flooding as a result of Sandy.
This means that housing will be a crucial part of the recovery
and rebuilding effort. In New Jersey alone, over 44,000 primary
residences had flooding, more than half experiencing at least a
foot of flooding. We project that about half of the damaged
primary homes in New Jersey were occupied by low- and moderate-
income households.
Our research staff has also identified approximately 500
neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut where
more than 20 percent of the homes were damaged. More than 175
of these neighborhoods are in New Jersey.
HUD is already assisting affected State and local
governments. Immediately following the storm, we hosted
technical assistance calls with these grantees to help them
understand how existing resources such as CDBG and HOME may be
used for response and recovery efforts. Further, HUD has issued
a series of waivers that make it easier to use these funds for
emerging needs.
As you know, the proposed supplemental appropriation for
Sandy recovery and rebuilding includes $17 billion for CDBG
Disaster Recovery. This proposed allocation will provide the
necessary resources to plan and implement long-term recovery in
the region while helping impacted communities effectively
mitigate future risk of disaster to prevent losses of this
magnitude from recurring. Hazard mitigation is not just
sensible, but it is cost effective. Studies have found that
mitigation efforts offer a 4:1 dollar return on investment by
preventing future damage.
For example, in Hope, Indiana, a 2008 CDBG Disaster
Recovery allocation of $40 million allowed for the rebuilding
of stronger and safer water and wastewater facilities that have
operated since then without disruption despite subsequent
severe storms and flooding.
Previous disaster response efforts have proven that CDBG
offers important flexibility and effectiveness by allowing
jurisdictions to design long-term housing and infrastructure
recovery programs based on their specific needs. Our experience
also demonstrates the importance of early appropriations so
that it is clear that the funds will be available and planning
efforts can include the full range of needs. Major
infrastructure investments take time to spend out due to
design, permitting, and staging requirements, but State and
local governments are unlikely to proceed with these efforts
without assurance that they have funding to implement the
projects.
Furthermore, after Katrina, the State of Louisiana waited
for more than 10 months for a second appropriation before
launching its main homeownership assistance program. This
delayed much-needed assistance to more than 100,000 households.
I should also note that CDBG Disaster Recovery funds are
not actually drawn from the Treasury until shortly before
actual payments are made. But the guarantee that these funds
will be available is necessary to move the projects forward.
The Administration urges Congress to pass a supplemental
appropriations bill as soon as possible to give affected States
and communities the support they need to recover and rebuild.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Menendez. Well, thank you both for your testimony,
and there are a lot of important things here, both in your oral
testimony as well as your written testimony.
Secretary Chavez, you say, I believe, in your written
testimony, you cite that New York and New Jersey combined
employ 12.7 million workers, or 10 percent of the entire United
States employment, and that they are an estimated 11 percent of
GDP nationally, or about $1.4 trillion nationally.
Don't those figures make the compelling case that the
disaster supplemental is not just about building or rebuilding
a few States, but is helping to rebuild at the same time a
national economy?
Ms. Chavez. Yes, we completely agree with that, Chairman.
As you said, it is not only critical for the regional economy,
but this recovery and rebuilding effort is critical for the
national economy. If we cannot get New York and New Jersey
workers and businesses back to the pre-storm pace in terms of
economic recovery, I think we are going to see our economic
recovery slow down instead of moving forward, as it has been in
these last couple of months.
Senator Menendez. Now, you also mentioned some incredible
data there that you have determined at HUD that about 500
neighborhoods where 20 percent of that neighborhood has, in
fact, been damaged or lost, and 175 of those neighborhoods in
New Jersey alone. What is the impact of that type of damage to
a neighborhood? In my own visits in New Jersey, I have seen
neighborhoods that are multigenerational in terms of their
calling a part of a community, you know, their neighborhood,
their home. As a matter of fact, I had a conference call a day
or two ago with a whole host of our mayors, and Mayor Kelaher
of Toms River told me that he had lost 20 percent of his entire
ratable base--20 percent of his ratable base.
Now, when you lose 20 percent of your ratable base--I was a
mayor for 6 years--that is a nightmare because there is no way
to make it up except for shifting the responsibility for that
community's cost to all of the other ratepayers and/or
dramatically cutting the various central services like public
safety and sanitation collections and other critical elements.
So what does that mean to neighborhoods?
Ms. Chavez. You make the case for why the supplement is
important. In order to rebuild the base, not only the community
base but the economic base of that neighborhood, we need to
start rebuilding. What it means, losing 20 percent of the
residents, of the base, not only in terms of the tax base and
property values but also in terms of neighborhood safety, is
devastating to communities. And that is why it is critical that
we start this process as soon as we can, because this type of
disaster could take 4 to 10 years in terms of rebuilding. We
have seen that in Louisiana and Mississippi. In Mississippi, we
are still working with the State to provide assistance to
homeowners that are still rehabilitating their homes. So we
cannot wait any longer to start the process.
Senator Menendez. Yes, and isn't it fair to say that a
delayed recovery is a failed recovery at the end of the day?
Ms. Chavez. A delayed recovery is a failed recovery. A
recovery that does not allow for communities to plan for the
range of needs, understanding that it may take 5 to 10 years to
recover, we would also say is a failed recovery.
Senator Menendez. Administrator, taking off from the
Secretary's comments about the regional economy within the
context of the national economy, transportation is a critical
element, is it not, of getting people to work, getting a
workforce to their jobs, being able to create productivity,
being able to drive a better bottom line, being able to move an
economy? I think sometimes we think maybe in other parts of the
country of transportation, particularly transit, as some type
of luxury. But isn't it, in essence, a necessity to economic
success?
Mr. Rogoff. Well, it absolutely is, Mr. Chairman, but
nowhere is it more of a necessity than in the New York-New
Jersey region. We are talking about 40 percent of the Nation's
transit passengers all in the northern part of your State,
central and northern part of your State, and in and around New
York city and southwestern Connecticut.
Importantly, many studies have shown that, after housing,
transportation is the second largest draw on a family's
paycheck, so in terms of the availability and affordability of
that transportation, it is absolutely elemental to the overall
economic health of the area. And as you pointed out in your
statement, we are talking about more than 10 percent of the
Nation's GDP just in that area.
Senator Menendez. And what would you think--I know that you
have helped FEMA do damage assessments, and I know you have
been up and visited with us and others in the region in terms
of reviewing the damage personally. Do you think that the
region's transit system could possibly be rebuilt and protected
with less than a third of the funds the Administration
requested?
Mr. Rogoff. No. In fact, we took note of one of the
amendments that has been introduced in the Senate that would
cut the President's request by more than 70 percent,
specifically in transit emergency relief. That amount would not
even cover the recovery estimates that we currently have, much
less get to any of the necessary mitigation investments that
have been requested under the President's budget.
Senator Menendez. So that amount would not even cover the
recovery----
Mr. Rogoff. Just the restoration and recovery costs, most
of which takes the form of reimbursements to the agencies that
you will hear from on your second panel, will far exceed the
amount proposed in that amendment. These are costs that in many
cases have already been laid out by the MTA, by the Port
Authority, by New Jersey Transit. We are working diligently
with FEMA right now to validate those costs so we can
expeditiously reimburse them so they can continue to turn out
their service for the year.
We have to remember that they still have to live within
their own budget envelopes to provide reliable and desirable
service for the people of the region on an ongoing basis
through the fiscal year. Meanwhile, they have laid out a great
deal of money just on restoration. They have depleted their
stocks of spare equipment. In some cases, they are stealing
equipment from one line to keep another up and running.
Senator Menendez. And is it possible that if the Congress
does not respond adequately, they will have to restore to a
fare shock?
Mr. Rogoff. Well, I think that question would be well put
to the next panel in terms of how they would make the dollars
add up. I already know that the MTA has announced that they
will need to go out and have gone out for additional debt just
to cash-flow the recovery until we can reimburse them. But I
think there is the risk of serious service degradation to the
public if they cannot, for example, restore their stocks of
spare equipment to keep the system up and running.
Senator Menendez. Now, some of our colleagues seem to think
that any attempt to rebuild our transit systems with an eye
toward mitigation and making them stronger for the future is a
waste of money. What is your perspective of that?
Mr. Rogoff. Well, one thing that became clear in our after-
action look at all this, which gave rise to the President's
request, is that the operators have some of the most critical
components to keep the systems up and running in some of the
most vulnerable areas. And I think what those folks are saying
when they say, well, we should not make mitigation investments,
is we should take taxpayer money and rebuild those critical
components right back in the same vulnerable environment. We
can do this much smarter and, in fact, cheaper over the long
run if we can make the necessary investment to protect that
situation from happening again. So when it comes to things like
propulsion power, signal systems, we know now that some of
those critical elements that are absolutely critical to get
that service up and running for 10 percent of the American
economy are in very vulnerable places.
None of us, no homeowner that has had their basement flood
repeatedly, takes their best family heirlooms and stores it on
the floor of the basement. We might buy some shelving. We might
put those heirlooms up on a shelf. What those folks are saying,
when we say we should not make any mitigation investments, is
we should put the family heirlooms on the floor of the basement
again and just wait for the next flood to happen.
The other thing you need to remember is when we have these
repeated disasters, much of those costs would be FEMA eligible,
so the taxpayer is going to pay again. And we see no wisdom in
that, and it is why we built the mitigation funding into the
President's budget in a very strategic way. They are not going
to be just dollars spread around without a plan. The whole
notion of the meeting we had with Secretary Donovan and the
impacted transit players up in New York is to start a
meaningful conversation of what are the most cost-beneficial
mitigation investments for the region, looking at the entire
transportation network--Jersey Transit, the MTA, PATH, even the
Staten Island Ferry, and all those things together.
Senator Menendez. So, in essence, it is more fiscally
prudent to do the mitigation than to just replace as it was and
wait for the next storm and repay all over again?
Mr. Rogoff. Absolutely. I know it seems trite, but I have a
very large tree in front of my house. One branch fell and went
through the windshield of one of my friend's cars this past
year. One went through my car. We do not park under the tree
anymore. We are smarter than that. And I think we need to be
that way when it comes to transit.
Senator Menendez. Is your neighbor still talking to you?
[Laughter.]
Senator Menendez. Let me ask you one final thing. I was
pleased, as the Subcommittee Chair working with Senator Johnson
and the full Committee, to create the program in MAP-21 on
emergency relief. How do you think this program can help our
agencies rebuild better and faster than if we simply had money
going through FEMA?
Mr. Rogoff. Well, I think you pointed out in your opening
statement the challenges that we have under the FEMA Stafford
Act rules where that fund will only reimburse transit agencies
to their pre-existing condition. You talked about the folks in
New Orleans after Katrina being told that they had to go find
an 8-year-old bus to replace the destroyed 8-year-old bus.
The program that you authorized, Mr. Chairman, allows us to
restore the transit agency to the service the public needs, one
that is reliable, and is up to modern technology. I think
importantly, following on the conversation we just had, it also
authorizes payments to prevent future disasters, which is why
the mitigation investments are authorized under that program.
The other fact, I believe--was that conversations that took
place between FEMA and transit agencies after Katrina took
many, many wasted months to figure out who owed who what. In
our case, the FTA has an electronic grantmaking relationship
that we use routinely with all of these agencies. We have that
infrastructure in place. We have staff that know these
facilities.
Two of the most tragic elements of the disaster from Sandy,
the South Ferry Station in Lower Manhattan and Hoboken Terminal
are two facilities that the FTA had already just puts hundreds
and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in, and both
sustained extraordinary damage. Our staff knows those
facilities. We know what went in them. We worked with the very
same staff. And rather than now have FEMA staff come in and
manage the rebuilding, we think there is a lot of efficiency
for the taxpayer to have the FTA still involved in that in a
way that--as one transit grantee put it, ``We like having you
here because you speak `transit.' '' We will save time and
money because we do.
Senator Menendez. Finally, Madam Secretary, let me just go
back to a comment that you made in your oral testimony about
having the resources necessary to understand and to rely upon
so that a community or an individual or a business can make an
informed decision depending upon and relying upon that that
decision will be funded at the end of the day. What are the
consequences of not having the resources under which you would
make those decisions?
Ms. Chavez. The consequences basically are that the
recovery will take longer. As you wait longer, it becomes more
expensive. And that is why it is critical that communities--and
we have seen this time and again with our experiences in
Mississippi, in Louisiana, in Iowa, where when communities
understand the funding they have, they can really take all of
the data in terms of their needs, design their program based on
those needs, and plan ahead 2, 3, 5 years down the line because
this disaster will take at least 5 years to rebuild. And that
is why it is really critical that they know exactly what the
resources are right up front, because as HUD, we are going to
ask them to give us their plan for recovery based on their
unmet need and based on the funding that is available to meet
that and to help them recover.
Senator Menendez. And, finally, in the CDBG grants that
have the greatest flexibility, which I know Senator Landrieu by
necessity has become almost an expert in this regard as a
result of what she went through in Katrina in her State, and as
the Chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee
has made very clear, that, for example, a small business, which
is the backbone, economic backbone, for which I have visited,
you know, street after street of small businesses that have
been closed, and that are trying to make a decision, do I start
my business again or do I not, based upon trying to get a sense
from the Government as to whether there will be any standards
under which a grant will be considered, because while many have
told me, look, I appreciate a small business loan, you know, at
low rates and long term, that is just adding to a debt I
already have. They took out debt to start off their business.
They took out debt to survive the Great Recession. And now they
are faced with having lost so much. For them, the choice
between opening or not opening may very well depend upon a CDBG
program that they can depend upon once standards are set. Is
that not a fair statement?
Ms. Chavez. That is a fair statement. In fact, grantees
would have the flexibility to determine how to design that
program. As you said, they could determine that they want to
provide grants to their small businesses to get them restarted.
In other situations where maybe the business has already opened
but needs some additional assistance, they may determine that
it is best to provide a low-interest loan or a forgivable loan.
There are many options for grantees in designing these programs
to help their businesses get back to working again.
Senator Menendez. Well, I hope some of our colleagues and/
or their staff have been listening to this testimony because
the reality is, I think some of these amendments on the floor
that were offered are miserly, to say the least, a moment of
national imperative, and do not have not only the spirit of the
season but do not have the spirit of what America is all about.
This is the United States of America. There is a reason we call
ourselves the ``United States of America,'' is because we
respond collectively to the needs of our citizens regardless of
what part of the country they are from. And we cannot get the
type of recovery that both we and the Nation need unless we
have a more robust response than some are suggesting.
I want to thank you both for your testimony. I appreciate
it. I know we look forward to continuing to work with you. And
as you depart, let me call up and introduce our next panel.
James Weinstein is the Executive Director of New Jersey
Transit, the largest Statewide transit agency in the Nation,
and he has kept a cool head in a very tumultuous time for the
agency, and he will help us understand the damage New Jersey
Transit incurred and the challenges the agency faces in
protecting its assets going forward.
Mr. Tom Prendergast is the President of the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority New York City Transit. The MTA
suffered extensive flooding damage during the storm, and I am
glad that he is here to help us wrap our minds around what
those challenges are.
And Mr. Patrick Foye is the Executive Director of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey. We are happy to hear the
PATH station is open again, but we know that there are
significant challenges still.
So I would like to ask each of you, starting with Mr.
Weinstein, to give us about 5 minutes or oral testimony. All of
your full statements will be included in the record, and then
we can have a discussion.
STATEMENT OF JAMES WEINSTEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
NJ TRANSIT CORPORATION
Mr. Weinstein. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for your leadership in helping our State through
this difficult time, and thank you and the Members of this
Committee for providing this opportunity to address you today.
New Jersey Transit is the second-largest transit agency in
the Nation, and Sandy hit us particularly hard. While we took
extraordinary steps to mitigate potential harm, nonetheless,
the transit system suffered extraordinary damage to critical
bridges, electrical substations, track and signal systems,
rolling stock, and key terminals.
In addition, under Governor Christie's leadership, we
worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. DOT,
the Federal Transit Administration, and other partners to
immediately implement extensive interim bus service, ferry
service, and other services to continue to deliver essential
public transportation to our region's transit riders.
But, Mr. Chairman, Sandy has shown we cannot merely restore
our rail and other infrastructure to its previous state. That
would only leave us vulnerable to the next storm.
It is clear we must go further and make the rail and other
transit modes more resistant in the face of future superstorms.
Those steps will require additional resources.
We have identified $1.2 billion in resiliency and
restoration projects that would be eligible under FTA's
Emergency Assistance program, projects that would improve our
system's ability to withstand storms of all types, not just
superstorms, that mimic Sandy's punishing surge.
Let me quickly outline a few of these projects for you.
More than 25 percent of our rail fleet, about 350 rail cars
and locomotives, were damaged during Superstorm Sandy, most
from flooding at our Meadows Maintenance Facility, our primary
maintenance and repair facility that has never before flooded.
To prevent a recurrence, a top priority is ensuring that we
have sufficient stormproof rail yards to safely store
locomotives and rail cares out of the reach of flood waters and
also out of harm's way from falling trees, electrical wires,
utility poles, and other storm-driven debris.
To that end, we estimate it will cost about half a billion
dollars to construct new rail yard and inspection facilities,
including a new yard at a site along the Northeast corridor in
New Brunswick that is currently owned by Amtrak. This facility
will provide a centrally located site for safe storage and
allow locomotives and rail cars to be rapidly reinspected and
put back into service once a storm passes.
Additionally, we are seeking $200 million to raise power
and other systems at the Meadowlands Facility and the
collocated Rail Operations Center above foreseeable flood
levels, as well as flood control structures that will allow us
to safeguard the most critical portions of the complex and
ensure that the parts, generators, and repair machinery and
other equipment can ride out any storm in place, as they must.
Mr. Chairman, Sandy badly flooded, as you pointed out, the
historic Hoboken Terminal, as well as portions of the Frank R.
Lautenberg Station in Secaucus. We estimate it will cost about
$125 million to restore and strengthen these and other key
locations against storms.
Sandy also ruined electrical substations along the North
Jersey coastline and in Hudson County and elsewhere, which are
vital for supplying the catenary wires that power our electric
trains.
So we are seeking $275 million to construct seven new
elevated electrical substations and to improve the coastline's
resiliency by constructing seawalls by bridges, building
sheathing to prevent washouts at bridge approaches, and raising
bridge control houses.
Both the Hudson Bergen and the Newark Light Rail systems
were impacted heavily by flood waters. Repairing the light rail
systems and making them more resilient will cost about $25
million.
Finally, we are seeking $75 million to cover the cost of
substitute bus and ferry emergency service provided after the
storm, as well as to restore, expand, and enhance
communications during a disaster. Real-time communications are
vital, whether our customers are at a station, on a train, on a
bus, on the Internet, or using a smart phone. This is not only
a customer service issue; it is a safety issue, whether a
disaster is a result of Mother Nature or an act of man.
Mr. Chairman, we recognize there will be local match
requirements for the funding we are seeking, and we are fully
prepared to work with our local MPO partners to make whatever
changes are needed to our existing capital program. We also are
ready to expedite implementation of these projects, including
by using fast-track design-build contracting.
Mr. Chairman, I would note that these cost estimates are
just that--estimates that may well evolve over time as we
progress the work that lies ahead. However, it is clear that
money invested preventing future storm damage will limit the
bill for future storm relief, as well as ensure that our
transit system has a better chance of avoiding service
interruptions that disrupt people's lives and undermine the
economic vitality of a region.
We appreciate the Committee's interest, and any assistance
you, the Committee, Congress, and the Administration can
provide in helping renew and improve New Jersey's public
transportation system will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, and I will be happy to answer any questions.
Senator Menendez. Thank you very much.
Mr. Prendergast.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS F. PRENDERGAST, PRESIDENT, MTA NEW YORK
CITY TRANSIT, METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
Mr. Prendergast. Good morning, Chairman Menendez and other
Members of the Committee. Thank you for holding this hearing
and inviting me to testify today. I am Tom Prendergast,
president of MTA's New York City Transit. The New York MTA is
the largest transportation provider in the country.
Every day, the MTA moves more than 8.5 million people--
reliably, affordably, and safely -on our subways and buses, the
Staten Island Railway, Metro-North Railroad, and the Long
Island Rail Road. Our seven bridges and two tunnels carry
nearly 300 million vehicles a year.
The MTA is one of the few transit systems in the world that
operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And
along with the other transportation networks represented on
this panel, we are the lifeblood of a $1.4 trillion dollar
regional economy--the largest in the country, making up 11
percent of the gross domestic product.
About 2 months ago, however, our region came to a complete
standstill in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy--a disaster
that brought our system to its knees. For the second time in
its 108-year history and in a little over a year, the MTA shut
down all of its services. And despite unprecedented
preparations, we sustained damage on a level we had never
experienced before.
Today, most of our customers are seeing service, but our
workers and those that run the system are seeing another
reality: a fragile system that is safe but extremely
vulnerable. The subway line and the bridge connecting the
Rockaways Peninsula and the rest of Queens were completely
washed away. The subway tunnel for the R train, the Montague
Street tube connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, is not
operational and will only be so for the first time tomorrow. We
have subway lines running at longer headways, resulting in
longer commutes and severe crowding. We have drawn down about
80 percent of our replacement equipment. The useful life for
many of our signals, switches, and relays has depleted
exponentially due to the damage sustained by the storm.
We estimate nearly $5 billion in immediate repair needs
left in Sandy's destructive wake and billions in project needs
to protect our system from future flooding events like the ones
we have experienced. And we will repair and rebuild our system
as quickly as possible--8.5 million customers are depending on
it.
We have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to
restore service as quickly as possible. And just yesterday, our
Board approved for us to move forward in selling $2.5 billion
in bond anticipation notes that will be used for that
rebuilding.
But we are simply not able to shoulder this incredible
burden on our own, and we cannot fully undertake these
financing efforts without knowing what Congress plans to do to
support us. A Federal commitment is needed to ensure that we
can rebuild and we can build back stronger.
Once a disaster relief supplemental appropriations bill is
signed into law, we are prepared to immediately enter into
contracts to begin the projects that are essential to our
riders, projects such as: South Ferry/Whitehall station
restoration; restoring the Rockaway line; repairing and
replacing damaged signal equipment, including switches and
relays, damaged vents, pumps, and communications equipment; and
repairing the roadway structure, ventilation, and
communications equipment in the Queens Midtown and Hugh L.
Carey Tunnels.
And as we work to bring our system back to normal, we must
also make the necessary investments to protect this 108-year-
old system from future storms. We must rebuild smarter.
Manhattan's South Ferry subway station is a perfect
example. It was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks, and we spent
over $500 million to rebuild it at that time. It serves over
30,000 riders a day. It was completely destroyed due to
Superstorm Sandy, and we need to replace it. This station,
eight stories underground, was completely filled with water
from floor to ceiling, corrosive salt water, which damaged
everything. The last thing we want do is to come back to
Congress for another $600 million after the next storm hits,
but we will if we have to. It is in the best interest of the
American taxpayers to protect this critical station and other
infrastructure elements so that our large Federal investments
can be wisely spent.
As Superstorm Sandy demonstrated, when the MTA shuts down,
the Nation's largest regional economy shuts down. It is
absolutely critical that we make the necessary investments to
protect the South Ferry station and other critical
infrastructure elements.
Our needs are great. But this is clearly much more than a
New York story or a New York need. This is a national issue, a
national need. And we need the Federal Government's help, not
only to get us on the road to recovery but to protect these
critical assets in the future.
Once again, Chairman Menendez, thank you for holding this
important hearing and for giving me the opportunity to testify
today. I will answer any questions later.
Senator Menendez. Thank you very much.
Mr. Foye.
STATEMENT OF PATRICK J. FOYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT
AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
Mr. Foye. Chairman Menendez and Members of the Committee,
thank you for holding this important hearing on the greatest
transit disaster in our Nation's history.
I am Pat Foye, Executive Director of The Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Port Authority, I thank you
for your ongoing support of our agency and for the people of
our region.
I also want to thank Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey for their strong
leadership before, during, and after Superstorm Sandy.
For those unfamiliar with our agency, the Port Authority
operates what is the most important multi-modal transportation
network in the world. Our transportation assets include: the
busiest airport system in the country, including JFK,
LaGuardia, and Newark airports; four interstate bridges, among
them the George Washington Bridge, which is the busiest
vehicular crossing in the world; the Holland and Lincoln
tunnels that link New York and New Jersey; the Nation's busiest
bus terminal, located in Midtown Manhattan; the largest port
complex on the east coast; and the bi-State commuter rail
system known as PATH.
Annually, about 77 million riders take PATH, and those who
rely on it will tell you it is an indispensable part of their
lives and jobs. While our PATH network is just over 13 miles
long, it serves as a vital link in the region, carrying
passengers under the Hudson between New Jersey and New York
City. It is an essential artery in a region representing, as
you have noted this morning, Mr. Chairman, more than $1.4
trillion in economic output, fully 11 percent of our Nation's
GDP.
Of all our transportation facilities, PATH suffered the
most severe blow in Superstorm Sandy. We took every step we
could to prepare for the storm, but despite our preparations,
this critical interstate link was completely devastated by the
historic storm surge and flooding that reached over 2 feet
above the prior 100-year flood level in Lower Manhattan.
The storm surge breached and blasted through our passenger
stations, as that slide you had up before, Mr. Chairman,
indicates, and the PATH tunnels, which are ancient by today's
mass transit standards, having been built at the turn of the
last century more than 100 years ago.
The PATH network is dense and closely contained with
complex tunnels interlocking underneath the Hudson. These
tunnels, along with the box-like structures called caissons
connecting the tunnels, contained rack upon rack of critical
and decades-old signal, switching, and communications equipment
that were damaged in the deluge of corrosive seawater during
Sandy.
The waters damaged the signals, switching, communications,
and other wayside equipment lining the tracks. Most visibly to
the public, our stations experienced tsunami-like conditions.
Our historic Hoboken Terminal, one of the busiest in our
system, was inundated after flood waters crushed an enclosed
elevator shaft, set forth on the easel, sending millions of
gallons of water pouring into the station.
In many of our stations, practically every wire, every
circuit, and every last bit of infrastructure that existed
below ground was damaged, destroyed, or otherwise left in need
of attention and repair. To compound the problem, many of the
parts that Sandy destroyed are no longer manufactured due to
their age. It has been like trying to find replacement parts
for an entire fleet of Model T Fords in the 21st century.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of our staff and many others
who provided assistance, we commenced partial service
restoration of the system on November 6th, re-establishing
service between Journal Square and 33rd Street in Manhattan. On
November 12, we brought back service to Newark.
With continued round-the-clock recovery efforts, on
November 26th PATH resumed service to the World Trade Center
and Exchange Place stations. And as you noted, Mr. Chairman, I
am proud to say that just yesterday, I joined PATH employees
for the inaugural run of restored Hoboken service to 33rd
Street on the west side of Manhattan. With that, we have
restored at least limited service to all of the stations in our
network.
We learned during the storm that the ingenuity and
dedication of our public servants is unrivaled. In the first
days after the storm, one of our workers, Tom O'Neill, risked
his own life to jump into several feet of murky flood waters in
a PATH tunnel to restart a pump by hand, thus preventing
further flood damage. Tom O'Neill, in his own words, ``was just
doing his job,'' and it is that attitude and the fortitude of
all of our PATH employees that continues to bring us back.
We could not have done this on our own, however. Companies
and factories from all over the country have helped in our
recovery. In Pearl, Mississippi, the employees at Trilogy
Communications worked day and night, on a weekend, to prepare 2
miles of replacement specialized communications cable for our
tunnels leading to the World Trade Center.
Invensys Rail, based in Louisville, Kentucky, did the same.
U.S. DOT and FTA provided critical support. Administrator
Rogoff was personally involved in securing desperately needed
breakers from CTA in Chicago for restoration of PATH service.
But with PATH still operating at less than full strength
and on partial schedules, and as NJ Transit continues its own
efforts to restore service, commutes are still badly disrupted.
What normally was a 45-minute ride home for many has now
doubled in length, or worse, as commuters displaced from PATH
seek alternative transit, bus, or ferry service. Those with
late evening shifts are still bearing the burden of limited
service, having to rely on late night buses to make their way
home.
We continue to rebuild and repair across our network, but
as is the case for the States of New York and New Jersey, the
Port Authority will need the Federal Government's help.
Simply put, we are not at full strength, and we have
endured hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Old electric
substations have been patched together with cannibalized parts.
Parts of our network are operating on so-called manual block,
with personnel communicating by radio to mark trains passing
stations while our signaling systems are still under repair.
To bring our system back will require hundreds of millions
of dollars. This will go immediately into signal system
repairs, electric substation repairs, track work, and
communications systems. We are still tallying the damage, Mr.
Chairman, but we now estimate that the costs to fully repair
and restore the PATH system may total more than $700 million
dollars--much more than our early and preliminary estimate of
$300 million.
It is also critical that we invest in mitigation measures
to protect our system from future storms so that we do not find
ourselves in the same situation just a few years from now. This
will include projects such as elevating portions of track,
elevating critical substations, and strengthening critical
caisson rooms within our tunnels beneath the Hudson River.
These mitigation measures will come at significant cost, but
without them, as we have learned over the last 2 months, the
costs to the taxpayer will be even greater.
Some of you know that the Port Authority receives no
taxpayer money from either New York or New Jersey. We rely
exclusively on user fees--the fares our passengers pay, and
rents and other fees--all revenue streams that have their
limitations. We are still assessing the exact costs of repair
and recovery, but our needs are significant.
Finally, I urge Congress to act as soon as possible, Mr.
Chairman, in approving recovery funding for the New York, New
Jersey, and Connecticut region. The final costs will no doubt
be high, but the costs, should we fail to make necessary
repairs and investments, are unfathomable in terms of the cost
of lost productivity, lost jobs, a fractured transportation
network, and the economic output that it powers.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Menendez. Thank you. Thank you all for your
testimony. Let me start off.
You know, some of my colleagues here think you plucked
these numbers out of the sky and they are all inflated and, you
know, not necessary. What would you say to them?
Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Chairman, we have been very sensitive to
that very issue. These are estimates that are a work in
progress, and we keep saying that. But I will tell you that, at
least from New Jersey Transit's standpoint, railroads are
expensive. We move on our railroad every day a quarter of a
million to 300,000 people. Those are people, if they are not on
the railroad, they are on the roads. And when they are on the
roads trying to get into Manhattan to get to work, the road
system breaks down, Mr. Chairman. This is a network. It is very
expensive to maintain it, but the return it has to the economy,
the return that it has to the quality of life in our region is
immeasurable.
Mr. Prendergast. The net worth of the New York City
Transit's part of the MTA infrastructure alone is $750 billion.
We have spent over $75 billion to repair items since 1982. The
damage we sustained is significant. It is affecting our ability
to provide service. I think Mr. Weinstein elaborated very
clearly, if you lived in the region and you experienced in the
first few days after the storm the gridlock that existed not
just in Manhattan but the outer boroughs and the region at
large, you would see the impacts that occurred to the
community. To say that the transportation network that all
three of these agencies provide for the New York region is the
lifeblood of the region is an understatement. So that would be
the way I would respond to it.
Senator Menendez. Mr. Foye, I heard your numbers. Your
numbers went upwards from your original estimate, not
downwards.
Mr. Foye. They did.
Senator Menendez. It is very likely that all of your
numbers will go upwards, not downwards, at the end of the day.
Mr. Foye. Mr. Chairman, I think that is right. Obviously,
as you noted in the case of Hoboken Terminal, service was
restored only yesterday. Our focus is obviously on restoring
service for the 77 million passengers on an annual basis who
use the PATH system. Allow me to note three points.
One, in accordance with the approach that Governor Cuomo in
New York and Governor Christie have taken, we at the Port
Authority believe in accountability. We understand that we are
going to be accountable to the Federal Government and to our
Federal funders and ultimately to the taxpayers for every
dollar we receive.
The second point I would note is that the Port Authority
has already spent out-of-pocket about $200 million since
Superstorm Sandy occurred on October 29th. Those dollars are
real. We are prepared to demonstrate every dollar.
Third, I would note that none of our agencies are talking
about a bridge to nowhere. We are talking about restoring
tunnels and bridges and train stations, whether it is New
Jersey Transit, MTA, or PATH, which exist, which serve millions
and tens of millions of passengers a year, and the damage in
the case of PATH and the caissons at PATH are to equipment that
was installed 50, 60, 70 years ago, which is, frankly, only
available and can be viewed at the Smithsonian. And we are
prepared, Mr. Chairman, to demonstrate and be accountable for
every dollar that we are provided.
Senator Menendez. So tell me what would happen if a--I
think you are all familiar with the supplemental as the
Administration submitted it to Congress and that we are
pursuing. What would happen if you get collectively less than a
third of what is being offered? What are your decisions going
to be like? How is it going to affect you?
Mr. Prendergast. Well, in terms of what I had stated in my
testimony, the board approved the additional funding of $2.5
billion in bond anticipation notes, so we are going to run
those down, and obviously we are going to deal with it on a
priority basis.
We are just getting the Montague Street tunnel back
tomorrow. We have had extensive signal damage. It has taken us
6 weeks to trouble-shoot and get that service running. Tens of
thousands of people a day use that line.
The Rockaways has not been restored, that service. That is
going to draw a large share of that money. And as those monies
get drawn down and we reach the point where, you know, we are
reaching the limits of our own ability to generate funds that
we can use for these types of repairs, we will be forced to put
off critical repair needs that may result in other delays.
What we saw in the Montague Street tube we have reason to
believe will happen on some of the other tubes in terms of
anticipated increased failures in those signal systems. So it
would affect our ability to provide that safe, reliable service
on an ongoing basis.
Senator Menendez. And if you had to draw down the--$2.6
billion, is it?
Mr. Prendergast. $2.5.
Senator Menendez. The $2.5 billion, and you do not get a
significant Federal response toward that, you are going to have
to pay those off.
Mr. Prendergast. We are increasing the debt service to be
able to do that, yes.
Senator Menendez. And if you increase the debt service to
do that, short of getting greater ridership, you are ultimately
looking at the possibility of a fare increase.
Mr. Prendergast. Yes, and we just are going forward with a
fare increase right now according to the budget we had planned
for both operating and capital needs, and that would have to be
revisited.
Senator Menendez. How about in the case of New Jersey
Transit?
Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Chairman, if we did not get the money
that we are asking for, or close to it, we are not going to be
able to make the repairs and, more importantly, the mitigation
improvements. That is going to leave our system vulnerable for
the next storm, and we noticed now that we are getting 100-year
storms every year. And I feel a particular sensitivity at this
point in light of the fact that our largest maintenance
facility in Kearny, New Jersey, flooded for the first time in
the history of our agency.
So if we do not have that, we are going to have to make the
immediate repairs that we need to run the system every day, and
over an extended period of time, you know, we would probably
have to make the repairs that would add the kind of resiliency.
But during that time we would be exposed to the same kind of
damage that we experienced in Superstorm Sandy, and the
investments that we had made would be washed away, and we would
be coming back to the Federal Government and to FEMA.
And, Mr. Chairman, the other point, I think, to the issue
about upping estimates and on that, I think that the system and
the group that Administrator Rogoff spoke about, putting the
FTA and FEMA and the agency teams together, working on the
development of those project costs, working on the development
of those, that is a very serious effort, and it is not a
frivolous effort. As somebody who is regulated by the FTA on a
day-to-day basis--and you know this very well, Mr. Chairman--
that agency takes how we spent Federal dollars very seriously;
we take it very seriously. What we are engaged in is not a
frivolous effort. It is an effort to make our system resilient
so that we do not have to come back every time we have a
superstorm.
Senator Menendez. Mr. Foye--actually, all of you I think
are involved in this, so you can all answer. Didn't we learn a
lesson in a different context after September 11th that in a
post-September 11th world, multiple modes of transportation are
critical not just for all of the economic reasons we have
talked about, not just about getting people, the workforce, to
work, getting salespeople to their venues, getting people to
hospitals, getting people to home, getting people to
recreation, but, in fact, on that fateful day when every system
of transportation was shut down, it was ferries that got people
out of Lower Manhattan into New Jersey hospitals. So it sent us
a lesson, I think, that the importance of multiple modes of
transportation, in addition to all the normal reasons we
accept, is also a security issue. So getting these systems up
and running and getting them up and running in an efficient and
safe manner is not only a driver to our economy and to our
quality of life, it is also a security imperative. Would that
be a misstatement?
Mr. Foye. No, Mr. Chairman, that is exactly right.
Obviously, the Port Authority was terribly impacted by 9/11,
given the fact that 84 of our members died at the World Trade
Center. One of the lessons of 9/11, Mr. Chairman, and
Superstorm Sandy in October was that from an economic, from a
national security point of view, from a homeland security point
of view, the transportation system is critical, and that each
of the transportation agencies--New Jersey Transit, PATH, the
MTA, Amtrak--are interdependent. When one or more of them, or
in this case all of them, are taken out of service, the impact
on the region from an economic point of view, from a
transportation point of view, but also from a public safety,
national security, and homeland security point of view is
magnified, Mr. Chairman, and that point is exactly right.
Mr. Prendergast. I would like to add also, in addition to
from a security standpoint, the integral element of the MTA
Hurricane Plan, developed in concert with the city of New York,
is that the MTA and its agencies are the service providers in
evacuation. We are the ones that transport people in mass
volumes from areas likely to see tidal surges and flooding. And
without a transportation network that spans even beyond the
MTA, would go in the case of New Jersey Transit and PATH,
without those systems up and running before and after the
storm, you could not provide for that. So it is an extremely
important point.
Senator Menendez. Well, thank you all for your testimony. I
hope it makes the case with many of our colleagues here to
understand the scope and magnitude of our challenge and why we
need a strong Federal response to that challenge working with
our State and regional partners.
The record will remain open for 1 week for any Member who
wishes to submit any questions for the record. We would ask all
of our witnesses, if they do receive questions, to please
respond as expeditiously as possible. And with the thanks of
the Committee, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:07 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[Prepared statements supplied for the record follow:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR CHARLES E. SCHUMER
Thank you for taking the time to hold this hearing to discuss
Superstorm Sandy's devastating impact on the Nation's largest
transportation systems and efforts to rebuild our infrastructure. I'd
like to especially thank Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Vitter
for holding this hearing today and for their continued support during
these difficult times.
New York State suffered nearly $7.3 billion in transportation-
related and $9.6 billion in housing-related damages due to Superstorm
Sandy. Over 300,000 households in New York have experienced damage to
their home because of Sandy's high winds, heavy flooding and storm
surge.
Neighborhoods like Breezy Point Queens lost over one hundred homes
alone due to a fast-moving fire that was sparked thanks to Sandy's
swift winds, not to mention the many more that were lost in that region
due to significant flooding. I personally toured the Red Hook Houses in
Brooklyn, New York--one of New York City Housing Authority's oldest
developments and among the nearly 40,000 units of public housing that
lost power, running water, and heat for weeks after Sandy hit.
While communities and neighborhoods are slowly picking up the
pieces after Sandy, they cannot do it alone. Congress must not shirk
from its responsibilities. Congress could provide immediate assistance
to localities impacted by Sandy by funding the Community Development
Block Grant CDBG adequately and ensuring flexibility with the program.
Of the total transportation-related damages, the New York
Metropolitan Transportation Authority sustained approximately $5
billion in damages after its system was inundated with storm surge. As
many of you know, the MTA is the largest public transportation system
in the country and lifeblood of the New York metropolitan region. From
New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State and
Connecticut, MTA's subways, buses and railroads provide New Yorkers
with approximately 2.63 billion trips a year.
While the MTA took all necessary precautions in preparation for
Sandy, this 108 year-old system has never been subjected to a storm of
this size or magnitude. To their credit, the MTA smartly put up
temporary barriers placed in front of subway entrances for stops along
the system. In many cases, they worked. But in other areas, like at the
South Ferry Station, these barriers were knocked over by Sandy's high
winds and flying debris, causing stations to become inundated with salt
water.
Overall the MTA sustained: 8 flooded subway tunnels and 2 flooded
vehicular tunnels; 12 subway stations including the South Ferry Station
are badly damaged or completely destroyed; an entire subway bridge and
rail line serving the Rockaways in Queens no longer exists; 15 miles of
damaged or destroyed signaling; entire rail yard and maintenance shops
were underwater and are damaged; 80 of the general stock equipment has
been depleted.
Amazingly, despite the immense damage sustained by the MTA a large
amount of service was recovered within a week of the storm because of
the dedication and commitment of the MTA staff. There is no doubt in my
mind that if Congress gives the MTA the right tools and adequate
resources, this system can be back up and running as good as new. But
the MTA is prohibited from entering into contracts for any capital
project without a funding commitment that ensures that the full terms
of the contract will be met. In order to move forward with the MTA's
rebuilding effort, Congress must act in passing a comprehensive
supplemental appropriations bill so that critical restoration work can
begin.
And as MTA continues to work to restore its system again, Congress
should fund programs like the FTA's Emergency Repair program to ensure
that mitigation is also a strong factor in the rebuilding effort. It
does not make good fiscal sense for Congress to pay to fix our broken
infrastructure--which we know we are legally required to do--without
paying a little more to protect that investment and prevent similar
costly damage in the future. New York has no choice: we must
simultaneously rebuild and adapt to protect against future storms. We
are a waterfront city and a waterfront State. It has become abundantly
clear we are in the path of violent new weather realities. The modern
infrastructure that powers and moves New York was not built to
withstand Mother Nature's wrath in this rapidly changing climate.
Congress must act now to support our critical infrastructure
systems like the MTA. We cannot wait any longer. I thank the Chair and
the Committee for this opportunity.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PETER ROGOFF
Federal Transit Administrator, Federal Transit Administration
December 20, 2012
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member DeMint, and Members of the
Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today to discuss
Hurricane Sandy's devastating impact on public transportation systems
and to discuss the Obama administration's budget request for assistance
through the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) newly authorized
Public Transit Emergency Relief program.
Hurricane Sandy triggered the worst transit disaster in U.S.
history. On the Tuesday morning following the storm, more than half of
the Nation's daily transit riders were without service. Even in the
days that followed, as services in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Washington, D.C. came back on line, 37 percent, or well over one-third,
of the Nation's public transit riders still had no access to regular
train or bus service. In the days that followed, the heroic efforts of
thousands of transit and utility workers throughout the region allowed
services to be brought back up incrementally. But, even today, there
are passengers in the Rockaways and those who typically take the PATH
trains from Hoboken Terminal into Lower Manhattan who are waiting to
return to their normal commuting pattern.
We applaud the outstanding and tireless efforts demonstrated by
emergency responders throughout the region who have worked together
with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and
others in the weeks since the storm to restore as much service as
possible, as quickly as possible. Even before the storm hit the
impacted region, the leadership of the U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT) and the FTA were in careful and regular
communication with the leadership of the responsible transportation
agencies throughout the region.
Following the superstorm, the FTA worked closely as part of the
larger DOT effort to develop a rapid-response strategy to assist
transit providers in the short-run, while laying the foundation for the
responsible administration of Federal-aid funds in the months ahead.
Among the steps the FTA has taken thus far:
FTA worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) through the General Services Administration's Federal
Acquisition service to procure 250 buses to temporarily replace
lost rail service in New Jersey. This enabled commuters to take
buses to ferry terminals or directly to Manhattan.
FEMA issued FTA two mission assignments directing FTA to
oversee and engage its project management oversight contractors
to conduct continuing damage assessments and cost-validation
work for both operating and capital costs associated with
restoring and rebuilding transit capacity. These early joint
efforts with FEMA are expected to allow us to compensate the
impacted transit agencies promptly once assistance is made
available by Congress.
FTA worked with the Chicago Transit Authority to secure
hard-to-find but essential equipment so that PATH service could
be restored between New Jersey and New York.
FTA drew upon its regional staff to stand up a Regional
Emergency Response Coordinator for the New England Region to
support the DOT's Emergency Support Function 1 under the
National Response Framework. This provides daily on-the-ground
monitoring and contact with the affected agencies to obtain a
real-time view of challenges, needs, and progress.
FTA repositioned staff to Joint Field Offices in New York
and New Jersey to assist State and local governments and other
infrastructure owners in the effort to restore transportation
service.
We believe these are all important steps in the right direction, but a
great deal of work remains to be done as we move into the recovery and
rebuilding phases of the disaster.
Thankfully, President Obama has responded to the needs of the
region by promptly requesting resources to aid in the recovery of the
region.
In total, the Administration's Supplemental Appropriations Request
for Disaster Assistance seeks $60.4 billion in Federal resources for
response, recovery, and mitigation related to Hurricane Sandy damage in
all affected States. This includes efforts to repair damage to homes
and public infrastructure and to help affected communities prepare for
future storms.
The DOT's share of the President's total request is $12.07 billion,
of which $370 million supports restitution of highways and bridges,
aviation, and freight railroad infrastructure. The majority share--
$11.7 billion--would be directed to the FTA to repair and replace the
affected public transit infrastructure and make it far more resilient.
The FTA's $11.7 billion request reflects two important and related
purposes:
First, based on our ongoing cost-validation work with FEMA, FTA is
requesting that $6.2 billion be directed to FTA's newly established
Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program to aid in the repair and
restoration of public transportation infrastructure in the New York
City metropolitan area destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Sandy,
including infrastructure controlled by the MTA, the Port Authority, New
Jersey Transit, and the New York City Department of Transportation, as
well as other transit providers throughout the impacted region. I want
to thank the Senate Banking Committee for its leadership in
establishing this program in response to the Administration's budget
request and my testimony before the Committee on May 19, 2011. I am
also grateful to the Senate Appropriations Committee for responding to
President Obama's request for aid by proposing $10.78 billion in
appropriations for the program. The support of both committees was both
timely and prescient.
The Public Transportation Emergency Relief program was created in
the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) (Public
Law 112-141)--the surface transportation reauthorization enacted on
July 6, 2012. In the past, assistance for transit agencies to respond
to and recover from Stafford Act disasters has typically been provided
through FEMA. FTA's Emergency Relief program addresses recommendations
made by the Government Accountability Office in 2008 that DOT should
evaluate the feasibility of options to increase FTA's authority to
provide financial disaster assistance to transit, noting that FTA has
the capability to fulfill those roles and responsibilities; sufficient
experience in dealing with needs of public transit providers and
Federal transit assistance; and can target emergency relief funds to
transit providers with the greatest needs.
MAP-21 requires that DOT and FEMA work in concert to make sure that
the use of emergency funds are coordinated. FTA's mission assignment
from FEMA offers an opportunity to reach a single cost estimate for
each damaged asset, or set of assets, which can then serve as the basis
for reimbursement by the FTA Emergency Relief program.
The FTA's $6.2 billion funding request assumes that a non-Federal
match of 10 percent will be required and that funding will not be used
to supplant third-party insurance coverage. In addition, an appropriate
set-aside should be provided for transfer to the DOT's Inspector
General for oversight of spending provided for Hurricane Sandy response
and recovery, and an appropriate take-down must be provided for FTA's
oversight and administrative expenses.
It is extremely important that going forward, we rebuild our public
transit and other transportation systems with greater resiliency, so
they are able to better withstand powerful natural and man-made
disasters. This also entails building greater redundancy into public
transit and other transportation systems, to ensure that viable
alternatives are available when primary systems--like the New York
subway--are crippled.
Therefore, the second component of the FTA's funding request is for
$5.5 billion to support resiliency investments to make the region's
transportation infrastructure able better withstand and recover from
coastal flooding and other weather-related challenges.
This will entail not only excellent financial stewardship,
transparency, and accountability, but also unprecedented cooperation
with our counterparts in numerous Federal departments and at the State
and local level.
Regional cooperation will be critically important for identifying
the right resiliency investments. To foster greater regional
cooperation and information-sharing and analysis, and address these
challenges in a coordinated fashion, President Obama on December 7,
2012 created the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force (Executive Order
13632), and appointed Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Secretary Shaun Donovan as chairman. As President Obama stated on
standing up this Task Force:
A disaster of Hurricane Sandy's magnitude merits a
comprehensive and collaborative approach to the long-term
rebuilding plans for this critical region and its
infrastructure. Rebuilding efforts must address economic
conditions and the region's aged infrastructure--including its
public housing, transportation systems, and utilities--and
identify the requirements and resources necessary to bring
these systems to a more resilient condition given both current
and future risks.
In anticipation of these objectives, Deputy Transportation Secretary
Porcari and I hosted a meeting with HUD Secretary Donovan last week in
New York City to jump-start the local process on coordination of
resiliency investments. We met with executives of Amtrak, the MTA, New
Jersey Transit, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to
discuss resiliency investments and the need for multi-agency
collaboration with the Task Force under Secretary Donovan's leadership.
All of these initial efforts set the stage for making the necessary
investments to rebuild our infrastructure and defend it against future
incursions. As regional response plans are formulated, with guidance
and assistance from FTA and other Federal agencies in partnership with
State, and local entities, they will be instrumental in presenting
options that can be ranked by their estimated cost-effectiveness, and
developed in coordination with the Task Force.
As the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reported, current
projections are that Sandy is on track to be the second or third most
costly natural disaster in U.S. history, behind Hurricane Katrina
(2005) and close to Hurricane Andrew (1992). The setback to our public
infrastructure was extremely severe. In Manhattan alone, all seven
subway tunnels under the East River flooded, as did the Hudson River
subway tunnel, the East River and Hoboken River commuter rail tunnels,
and the subway tunnels in lower Manhattan. The South Ferry transit
terminal, rebuilt and modernized with significant Federal assistance
within the last 3 years, was virtually destroyed.
We cannot, as a Nation, afford to be caught unprepared time after
time as events like these befall us with little warning. We must
prepare, and be prepared, to protect and preserve the public
transportation infrastructure and other assets that the United States
depends on to move people and goods, maintain the free flow of
commerce, and drive our economy forward.
The havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy was a tragedy and also a wake-
up call. It brought into sharp focus the need for us as a Nation to do
a better job of building public transportation systems--and all of the
infrastructure our economy depends on--to withstand strong physical
forces. As Deputy Transportation Secretary Porcari has said, our
watchwords must be resilience, redundancy, and regionalism.
FTA and DOT will continue to work with all partners at the table--
Federal, regional, and local--to recover from this disaster and apply
new lessons learned for the future. And we are committed to ensuring
all Federal resources appropriated to us are used responsibly and that
the recovery effort is a shared undertaking.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, for
inviting me to testify today. I would be happy to respond to any
questions you may have.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF YOLANDA CHAVEZ
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs,
Office of Community Planning and Development
Department of Housing and Urban Development
December 20, 2012
Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member DeMint, and Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding
recovering from Superstorm Sandy and rebuilding the housing and
transportation infrastructure in the affected region. I have served for
more than 3 years as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs in
the Office of Community Planning and Development at the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In that role, I am responsible for
overseeing key programs that promote affordable housing and community
development, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
program, the CDBG-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grants, and the HOME
Investment Partnerships program. These grants, particularly the CDBG-DR
program, have played a critical role in helping communities recover
from and rebuild after natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy.
In my testimony today, I will cover four subjects: 1) the damage
caused by Superstorm Sandy, particularly to housing infrastructure; 2)
HUD's participation in the ongoing response and recovery efforts; 3)
the longer term rebuilding efforts with respect to Sandy, including the
role of HUD and the special role of HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan under
the President's Executive Order; and 4) the supplemental appropriations
request that the Administration has submitted and which is currently
under consideration by Congress.
The Impact of and damage caused by Superstorm Sandy
Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter that followed have had immense
and varied impacts in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia,
Maryland, and a number of other States. Within the United States, the
hurricane itself resulted in 121 confirmed fatalities, major flooding,
structural damage, and power loss to over 8.5 million homes and
businesses, directly affecting more than 17 million people as far south
as North Carolina, as far north as New Hampshire, and as far west as
Indiana. Especially hard hit were New York and New Jersey, which are
critical economic engines of our Nation. These two States employ 12.7
million workers, accounting for about 10 percent of U.S. payroll
employment. They export about $90 billion in goods annually, accounting
for about 7 percent of such exports, and contributed $1.4 trillion to
our gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, accounting for more than 11
percent of GDP. Thus, recovery and rebuilding is not only a State and
local priority, but a crucial national priority as well.
Unfortunately, one of the major effects of storms like Sandy is
destruction and damage to the homes and apartments where people live,
and the displacement of numerous families and individuals. Excluding
second homes, more than 150,000 housing units experienced substantial
flooding as a result of Sandy, meaning that work on housing will be an
early, continuing, and crucial part of the recovery and rebuilding
effort. In New Jersey, over 44,000 primary residences had flooding,
more than half with over 1 foot of flooding in the first floor. We
estimate around half of the damaged primary residences in New Jersey
were occupied by low and moderate income households.
But this is more than just damaged homes; this is also about the
fabric that makes our communities work. Every county in New Jersey, for
example, was a Presidentially declared disaster area. Our research
staff has identified approximately 500 neighborhoods in New York, New
Jersey, and Connecticut where more than 20 percent of the homes were
damaged, more than 175 of these in New Jersey. When large numbers of
units in a neighborhood are impacted, recovery takes longer, and
families and communities need to make hard decisions about if, how, and
where they should rebuild.
HUD's participation in ongoing response and recovery efforts
HUD has played a significant role in response to and recovery from
past major storms, and is doing so with respect to Sandy as well.
Before I describe some of HUD's activities, it is important to note
the unprecedented cooperation that is taking place among Federal,
State, local, and tribal authorities. HUD, FEMA and other parts of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as the Departments of
Transportation and Health and Human Services plus the Small Business
Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers, are all in place and
working together. We are all coordinating our work with State, local,
and tribal officials, who are doing a truly herculean job on the
response and recovery. The private sector has been deeply involved as
well. This unprecedented level of cooperation and partnership will
ensure that we continue to speed recovery resources and provide related
assistance to the most affected areas.
For example, within a week after Sandy hit there were almost 15,000
Federal responders on the ground from FEMA, the National Guard and the
Army Corps of Engineers, HUD, Department of Transportation, and HHS, as
well as tens of thousands of utility workers from across the Nation. In
the weeks since the storm, FEMA has approved nearly $2.7 billion in
emergency assistance.
A key HUD priority has been providing immediate help to storm-
displaced families to find temporary replacement housing, whether they
were displaced from private or government-assisted housing. We have
identified thousands of housing units, including more than 12,000
available units in HUD-assisted housing, and have been working to
ensure that the relevant information is provided to displaced
individuals. We also are allowing providers of housing for seniors the
flexibility to open up vacant units to storm evacuees.
HUD has also focused on help to persons living in and owners of
HUD-assisted housing damaged or destroyed by the storm. This includes,
for example, helping to temporarily house displaced persons, getting
boilers and generators to impacted developments that house low-income
families, and waiving administrative requirements (while ensuring
appropriate safeguards) so as to facilitate the rapid delivery of safe
and decent housing to displaced public housing authority (PHA) and
multifamily housing residents. We have also increased fair market
rental allowances to make it easier for displaced Section 8 voucher
recipients to find replacement housing.
HUD is working to encourage the private sector to help displaced
families. Shortly after the storm, HUD Secretary Donovan reached out to
several private sector organizations to encourage their involvement in
this effort, and a number have stepped forward at least partially as a
result. This recognizes the importance of engagement by the private
sector as well as government in relief efforts. For example, Angie's
List is providing free, 1-year memberships to one thousand homeowners
in the New York City tri-State area to help with Sandy relief by making
it easier for families to find local contractors, auto repair
specialists, and health care professionals who are highly rated by
other consumers. Walk Score has launched a Web site to support people
in search of temporary housing after Sandy. HotelTonight recently
announced a $60,000 contribution to the American Red Cross to support
relief efforts for Sandy victims, and will donate 10 percent of its net
revenues in New York City for the month of November to the Red Cross
for this purpose.
We have deployed HUD personnel to help staff FEMA Disaster Recovery
Centers and do other storm-related work. This has included providing
local housing resource help, program information, and other help to
storm victims, mobilizing special needs providers from other States to
assist families in shelters, and activating our Northeast network of
field offices to communicate daily with impacted PHAs.
There are more than 200,000 homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages
in the affected areas in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. HUD has
provided foreclosure protection for storm victims with FHA-insured
mortgages through a mandatory 90-day moratorium on foreclosures.
We are also offering assistance to storm victims who must rebuild
or replace their homes. In particular, FHA insurance is available to
such disaster victims who seek new mortgages, and borrowers from
participating FHA-approved lenders are eligible for 100 percent
financing, including closing costs. HUD is also directing banks to
provide insurance payments they receive related to the storm directly
to homeowners, in order to avoid the problem that occurred after
Hurricane Katrina where some mortgage companies used some insurance
payments that were supposed to be used to rebuild damaged homes for
other purposes. HUD is working to get information on these and other
assistance efforts to affected homeowners.
HUD is also providing help to affected State and local governments.
Immediately after the storm, HUD hosted technical assistance conference
calls with all HUD grantees. We have provided waivers of existing rules
so that existing Federal CDBG and HOME funds in New Jersey and
elsewhere can be used for disaster relief. Collectively, the CDBG and
HOME grant programs allow grantees to meet a broad range of needs,
including housing, economic development, infrastructure, and the
provision of public services. We are also working with State and local
governments and tribes to develop interim housing plans and to provide
loan guarantees for housing rehabilitation.
The role of HUD and Secretary Donovan's role as designated by the
President concerning Federal rebuilding efforts
As you know, on November 15, President Obama announced that HUD
Secretary Donovan will lead coordination of the Federal action relating
to Superstorm Sandy rebuilding efforts, and issued an Executive Order
on December 7 providing that he will serve as chair of the Hurricane
Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. This role is different from and in
addition to the role that Secretary Donovan usually carries out with
respect to disasters as HUD Secretary. In understanding the Secretary's
role in relation to the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), it
is important to understand the NDRF and how it was developed.
Early in his first term, President Obama recognized that previous
experience concerning Hurricane Katrina and other disasters highlighted
the need for additional guidance, structure, and support to improve how
we as a Nation address disaster-related recovery and rebuilding
challenges. In September 2009, President Obama charged the Departments
of HUD and Homeland Security to work on this effort and to establish a
Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group, composed of more than 20
Federal agencies. HUD, DHS, and the Working Group consulted closely
with State and local governments as well as experts and stakeholders,
and worked on improving the Nation's approach to disaster recovery and
on developing operational guidance for recovery efforts. As a result,
FEMA published a draft of the NDRF in 2010, carefully reviewed and
considered more than one hundred public comments, and the final version
of the NDRF was published in September, 2011.
The NDRF addresses the short, intermediate, and long-term
challenges of managing disaster-related recovery and rebuilding. It
recognizes the key role of State and local governments in such efforts,
and sets forth flexible guidelines that enable Federal disaster
recovery and restoration managers to operate in a unified and
collaborative manner and to cooperate effectively with State and local
governments. The NDRF defines core recovery principles; roles and
responsibilities of recovery coordinators and other stakeholders;
flexible and adaptable coordinating structures to align key roles and
responsibilities and facilitate coordination and collaboration with
State and local governments and others; and an overall process by which
communities can capitalize on opportunities to rebuild stronger,
smarter, and safer after a disaster.
Under the NDRF itself, HUD plays an important role in recovery from
disasters like Sandy. It is involved in carrying out several Federal
recovery support functions, which provide the coordinating structure
for Federal efforts to support State and local governments and tribes
by facilitating problem solving, improving access to resources, and
fostering coordination among all participants in recovery efforts.
Under the NDRF, HUD is the coordinating agency for the housing recovery
support function, and is charged with coordinating and facilitating the
delivery of Federal resources and activities to assist local, State and
Tribal governments in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of
destroyed and damaged housing and the development of other new
accessible, permanent housing options, where feasible.
In addition, because Sandy will be one of the most devastating and
costly disasters in our history, the President recognized that
responding to this disaster required an additional focus on rebuilding
efforts coordinated across Federal agencies and State, local, and
Tribal governments in order to effectively address the enormous range
of regional issues. Accordingly, the President signed the Executive
Order creating the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and
designating the Secretary of HUD to be the chair.
The Secretary's responsibilities in this role will occur in
coordination with the NDRF and will involve cooperating closely with
FEMA and the other agencies already involved in recovery efforts. The
focus will be on coordinating Federal support as State and local
governments identify priorities, design individual rebuilding plans,
and over time begin implementation. The Secretary will be the Federal
Government's primary lead on engaging with States, tribes, local
governments, the private sector, regional business, nonprofit,
community and philanthropic organizations, and the public on long-term
Hurricane Sandy rebuilding.
Secretary Donovan has explained that the Task Force will not seek
to impose a one-size-fits-all solution on localities. Instead, with the
expertise of virtually the entire cabinet represented, it will provide
leadership and connections that actively support local visions and
rebuilding efforts. It will have four major responsibilities:
First, and most important, it will coordinate with all stakeholders
to support cohesive rebuilding strategies and develop a comprehensive
regional plan within 6 months of its first meeting. It will share the
best practices of recovering communities, creating a vision for long-
term rebuilding by State and local stakeholders--a vision that will be
supported by more thoughtful planning and a focus on resilient
rebuilding that addresses not only existing but future risk and long-
term sustainability of communities and ecosystems.
Second, it will identify and work to remove obstacles to effective
rebuilding efforts, particularly by helping State and local governments
and tribes as they seek Federal assistance for longer term projects.
Third, it will develop a plan for monitoring progress in rebuilding
efforts. At a moment like this, because Americans are anxious about the
recovery, they have little patience for ineffectiveness or waste.
Finally, the Task Force will facilitate the offering of technical
assistance and tools--providing critical support as those on the ground
realize their vision for rebuilding and redevelopment.
Work on the structure and functioning of this new effort is
proceeding rapidly. Secretary Donovan has already met with a number of
the most directly affected Federal, State, and local officials, and I
know he is looking forward to working with this Subcommittee and other
Senators and Representatives on this important effort.
The request for supplemental disaster assistance
Rebuilding must be a community driven effort, with a community-
based vision at its heart. But supporting that vision through financial
means is a key part of the Federal role--one that has consistently been
provided by the Federal Government for communities experiencing
disaster.
On December 7, the President delivered to Congress a request for
$60.4 billion in supplemental assistance to aid in Sandy recovery and
rebuilding. The request includes funds for transportation, support for
the Small Business Administration and its disaster loan program, CDBG-
DR funds to be provided to communities, and a range of other critical
priorities.
The Administration issued a Statement of Administration Policy on
December 17 in support of the Senate legislation providing supplemental
appropriations for fiscal year 2013 to respond to and recover from the
severe damage caused by Superstorm Sandy. We look forward to working
with the Congress to refine this legislation. The Senate measure will
provide the necessary resources to continue ongoing response and
recovery efforts, while helping impacted communities effectively
mitigate future risk of disaster to prevent losses of this magnitude
from recurring. Hazard mitigation is not just sensible, but it is also
cost effective. The Multihazard Mitigation Council examined 10 years of
FEMA mitigation grants data and found that mitigation efforts offer a 4
to 1 dollar return on investment by preventing future damage.
Given the emergency and one-time nature of the proposed
supplemental appropriation, and in keeping with the response to
Hurricane Katrina, Deepwater Horizon, and other disasters, the
Administration supports the decision to not offset these funds. The
proposed funding meets the definition of emergency funding that should
not be offset, as set forth in the Balanced Budget and Emergency
Deficit Control Act of 1985, because it is sudden, urgent, unforeseen,
temporary, and needed for the prevention or mitigation of, or response
to, loss of life or property. The Administration remains committed to
balanced deficit reduction, and it believes that the Executive and the
legislative branches can come together to achieve that, while ensuring
that communities damaged by Sandy have the support they need to recover
and rebuild.
The proposed supplemental appropriations include $17 billion for
CDBG-DR disaster funding. As we have seen with respect to previous
disasters, such CDBG funding offers important flexibility and
effectiveness in responding to disasters. Previous uses of CDBG
disaster funding have included, for example:
The State of Louisiana used CDBG-DR funds to leverage
private equity investment and Low-Income Housing Tax credits to
produce rental housing, spending more than $500 million that
has produced 6,780 rental housing units, 58 percent of which
are affordable housing.
The State of Indiana budgeted approximately $40 million in
CDBG-DR funds to rebuild and mitigate damaged infrastructure
following 2008 flooding. As a result, water and wastewater
facilities in the town of Hope were rebuilt safer and stronger,
and the facilities have continued operation without disruption
despite subsequent severe storms.
The State of Iowa budgeted some $260 million toward
voluntary buyout of homes and commercial properties within the
floodplain, resulting in the acquisition of more than 2,075
properties.
The State of Louisiana supplemented its small business loan
program with $43 million in CDBG-DR funds to provide technical
assistance to help businesses get back on their feet and
maximize the impact of their loans. To date, more than 3,000
businesses have been helped.
HUD has been a partner with State and local governments in the
recovery efforts of several of the States in the region affected by
Sandy. New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have CDBG disaster
recovery experience and know the recovery grant process. New York and
New Jersey received a 2011 CDBG-DR grant following Hurricane Irene,
prepared CDBG disaster recovery action plans for that grant, and are
expending the funds. Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Maryland have
also received CDBG disaster recovery grants as a result of past
hurricanes and flooding.
Our experience with CDBG-DR also demonstrates the importance of
early appropriations so that it is clear that the funds will be
available and planning efforts encompass the full range of needs. For
example, major infrastructure investments take time to spend out due to
design, permitting and staging requirements, but governments receiving
CDBG-DR funds are highly unlikely to proceed with these efforts without
assurance that they have funding to implement the projects. The assured
availability of these funds is crucial to ensure that workers can be
hired and other commitments can be made to move projects forward.
Providing the requested Federal funding for response, recovery,
rebuilding, and mitigation following Superstorm Sandy will maintain the
Nation's tradition of pulling together to help one another in times of
greatest need. The Administration looks forward to working with
Congress on the legislation and urges Congress to pass a supplemental
appropriations bill as soon as possible to give affected States and
communities the support they need to recover and rebuild.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAMES WEINSTEIN
Executive Director, NJ TRANSIT Corporation
December 20, 2012
Good morning Mr. Chairman and Senators.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to outline
the unprecedented damage Superstorm Sandy inflicted on NJ TRANSIT and,
just as importantly, to describe the need to rebuild a more resilient
transit system for the future.
NJ TRANSIT is the Nation's second-largest transit agency, and Sandy
hit us hard. NJ TRANSIT took sound steps to mitigate potential harm.
Nonetheless, the transit system suffered extraordinary damage to
critical bridges, electrical substations, track and signal systems, and
rolling stock.
In addition, under Governor Chris Christie's leadership, we worked
with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Transit
Administration and other partners to immediately implement extensive
interim emergency bus, ferry and other services to continue to deliver
essential regional transportation services while the region's transit
systems were being restored.
But Mr. Chairman, Sandy has shown we cannot merely restore our rail
and other infrastructure to its previous state. That would only leave
us vulnerable to the next superstorm.
We must go further and make the rail and other transit modes more
resistant in the face of future superstorms. Those steps will require
additional resources. We have identified some $1.2 billion in
resiliency and restoration needs--resiliency projects that would be
eligible under the Federal Transit Administration's Emergency
Assistance program. Moreover, these projects are targeted to improve
the transit system's ability to withstand storms of all types, not just
superstorms that mimic Sandy's punishing surge.
Let me outline a few of these projects for the Committee now.
As you may know, more than 300 rail cars and locomotives were
damaged during Superstorm Sandy. To prevent that from ever occurring
again, our top priority is ensuring we have sufficient, stormproof rail
yards to safely store locomotives and train cars, out of the reach of
flood waters and also out of harm's way from falling trees, electrical
wires, utility poles and other storm-driven debris.
To that end, we estimate it will cost some $500 million to
construct new rail yard and inspection facilities, including a new yard
at a site along the Northeast Corridor in New Brunswick that is
currently owned by Amtrak. This facility will provide a centrally
located site for safe storage, and allow locomotives and rail cars to
be rapidly re-inspected and put back into service once a storm passes.
The Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny--the ``MMC,''--is our
prime rail inspection, maintenance and repair facility, and is also a
major site for rail equipment storage. The Rail Operations Center
called the ``ROC,'' sits in the same complex and is the central nervous
system for the railroad, controlling all dispatching and signaling
system-wide. We are seeking $200 million to raise power and other
systems for the MMC and the ROC above foreseeable flood levels, as well
as to install beams and other anti-flood control structures, so that we
can safeguard the most critical portions of the complex, and ensure
that the parts, generators, and repair machinery and other equipment at
the MMC can ride out any storm in place, as they must.
Mr. Chairman, Sandy badly flooded the historic Hoboken Terminal, as
well as portions of the Frank R. Lautenberg Station in Secaucus. We
estimate it will cost $125 million to restore and strengthen these and
other key locations against storms. This money will fund projects
involving both temporary and permanent flood and storm water controls.
Sandy was at her most wrathful along the Jersey Coast. I'm sure you
saw the pictures of boats and even metal shipping containers left on
our North Jersey Coast Line rail bridges by the storm. Sandy also
ruined electrical substations along the coast and in Hudson County and
elsewhere which are vital for supplying the catenary wires that power
our electric trains.
So we are seeking $275 million to restore the Coast Line, and
construct seven new, raised electrical substations and to improve the
Coast Line's resiliency by constructing sea walls by bridges, building
sheathing to prevent washouts at bridge approaches and raising bridge
control houses.
Mr. Chairman, you are very familiar with our light rail systems.
Both Hudson Bergen and the Newark Light Rail were impacted heavily when
flood waters rushed in. Repairing the light rail systems and making
them more resilient will cost an estimate $25 million.
Finally, we are seeking $75 million to cover the cost of substitute
bus and ferry emergency service provided after the storm, as well as to
restore, expand and enhance communications during a disaster. Real-time
communications are vital, whether our customers are at a station, on a
train, on a bus, on the Internet or using a smart phone. This is not
only a customer service issue; it is a safety issue, whether a disaster
is a result of Mother Nature or an act of man.
Mr. Chairman, we recognize that there will be local match
requirements for the funding we are seeking and we are fully prepared
to work with our local Metropolitan Planning Organization partners to
make whatever changes are needed to our existing capital program. We
are also ready to expedite implementation of these projects, including
by using fast track design-build contracting.
Mr. Chairman, I would note that these cost estimates are just
that--estimates that may well evolve over time as we progress the work
that lies ahead. Before I close, I want to thank Administrator Rogoff
and the FTA, as well as the leaders and staff at FEMA and the U.S.
Department of Transportation for their assistance and support during
this trying time. They have been true partners in the recovery effort.
And I want to thank Gov. Christie, for his continued emphasis on
bringing New Jersey back to a state of normalcy for the people of the
Garden State.
I also want to again express my thanks to our hundreds of thousands
of daily customers, for their patience and understanding while NJ
TRANSIT, and, indeed, the entire State of New Jersey continues to
rebuild after Sandy.
Finally, I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman and the Committee for
your interest and for the opportunity to speak today. Repairs and
resilience both take funding. Money invested in preventing future storm
damage will limit the bill for future storm relief--as well as ensuring
that our transit systems have a better chance of avoiding service
interruptions.
We appreciate the Committee's interest and any assistance the
Committee, Congress and Administration can provide in helping us renew
New Jersey's transit system, and improve it for the future.
Thank you and I will be happy to answer any questions you might
have.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THOMAS F. PRENDERGAST
President, MTA New York City Transit
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
December 20, 2012
Good morning, Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member DeMint, Senator
Schumer and other Members of the Committee. Thank you for holding this
hearing and inviting me to testify today. I'm Tom Prendergast,
President of the MTA's New York City Transit. The New York MTA is the
largest transportation provider in the country.
Every day, the MTA moves more than eight and a half million
people--reliably, affordably, and safely on our subways and buses, the
Staten Island Railway, Metro-North Railroad, and the Long Island Rail
Road. Our seven bridges and two tunnels carry nearly 300 million
vehicles a year.
The MTA is one of the few transit systems in the world that
operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And along with
the other transportation networks represented on this panel, we are the
lifeblood of a $1.4 trillion dollar regional economy--the largest in
the country, making up 11 percent of the Nation's GDP.
About 2 months ago, however, our region came to a complete
standstill in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy--a disaster that
brought our system to its knees. For the second time in our 108-year
history, the MTA shut down all service. And despite unprecedented
preparations, we sustained damage on a level we have never experienced.
Today, most of our customers are seeing service, but our workers
are seeing another reality--a fragile system that's safe but extremely
vulnerable. The subway line and the bridge connecting the Rockaways
Peninsula and the rest of Queens have completely washed away. The
subway tunnel for the R train connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan still
isn't operational. We have subway lines running at longer headways,
resulting in longer commutes and severe crowding. We've drawn down
about 80 percent of our replacement equipment. The useful life for many
of our signals, switches, and relays has depleted exponentially.
We estimate nearly $5 billion dollars in immediate repair needs
left in Sandy's destructive wake, and billions in project needs to
protect our system from future flooding. And we will repair and rebuild
our system as quickly as possible--our 8.5 million customers are
counting on it.
We've already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to restore
service as quickly as possible. And just yesterday, our Board approved
for us to move forward in selling $2.5 billion dollars in Bond
Anticipation Notes that will be used for rebuilding.
But we are simply not able to shoulder this incredible burden on
our own and we cannot fully undertake these financing efforts without
knowing what Congress plans to do. A Federal commitment is needed to
ensure that we can rebuild and we build back stronger.
Once a Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations bill is signed
into law, we are prepared to immediately enter into contracts to begin
the projects that are essential to our riders. Projects such as:
Restoring the South Ferry/Whitehall Street subway station;
Restoring the Rockaway line;
Repairing and replacing damaged signal equipment, including
switches and relays, and restoring our damaged vents, pumps,
and communications equipment; and
Repairing the roadway structure, ventilation, and
communications equipment in the Queens Midtown and Hugh L.
Carey Tunnels.
And as we work to bring our system back to normal, we must also make
the necessary investments to protect this 108-year old system from
future storms. We must rebuild smarter.
Manhattan's South Ferry subway station is a perfect example. This
station, which was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks, reopened in 2009.
The station cost over $500 million to rebuild and it serves over 30,000
riders every day. It was completely destroyed, again, this time by
Sandy. This station, eight stories underground, was completely filled
from floor to ceiling with corrosive salt water. We estimate that
rebuilding the station will cost the MTA around $600 million dollars.
The last thing we want do is to come back to Congress for another $600
million after the next storm hits but we will if we have to. It is in
the best interest of the American tax payers to protect this critical
station and other large Federal investments or we could be here again
seeking billions of dollars to repair our system.
As Superstorm Sandy demonstrated, when the MTA shuts down, the
Nation's largest regional economy shuts down. It's absolutely critical
that we make the necessary investments to protect the South Ferry
station and the MTA's 108-year old assets from future storms. Failing
to protect these assets places the region's $1.4 trillion dollar
economy, representing 11 percent of the Nation's GDP, at risk.
Our needs are great. But this is clearly much more than a New York
story, or a New York need. This is a national issue . . . a national
need. And we need the Federal Government's help--not only to get us on
the road to recovery, but also to protect New York and our Nation's
economy in the future.
Once again, Chairman Menendez, thank you for holding this important
hearing and for giving me the opportunity to testify before the
Committee. I welcome any questions you may have.
______
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PATRICK J. FOYE
Executive Director, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
December 20, 2012
Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member DeMint, Senator Schumer, and
Members of the Committee, thank you for holding this important hearing.
I am Pat Foye, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey.
Chairman Menendez and Senator Schumer, on behalf of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, I thank you both for your ongoing
support of the Port Authority and for the people of our region.
I also want to thank Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Chris
Christie of New Jersey for their strong leadership before, during and
after Superstorm Sandy.
For those unfamiliar with our agency, the Port Authority operates
what is arguably the most important multi-mode transportation network
in the world.
Our transportation assets feature:
the busiest airport system in the country, including JFK,
LaGuardia, and Newark airports;
four interstate bridges, among them the George Washington
Bridge, which is the busiest vehicular crossing in the world;
the Holland and Lincoln tunnels that link New York and New
Jersey;
the Nation's busiest bus terminal, located in Midtown
Manhattan;
the largest port complex on the East Coast; and
the bi-State commuter rail system known as PATH.
Annually, about 77 million riders take PATH, and those who rely on
it will tell you it is an indispensable part of their lives. While our
network is just over 13 miles long, it serves a vital link in the
region, carrying passengers under the Hudson between New Jersey and New
York. It is an essential artery in a region representing more than $1
trillion in economic output; fully 11 percent of our entire Nation's
GDP.
Of all our transportation facilities, PATH suffered the most severe
blow in Superstorm Sandy. We took every step we could to prepare for
the storm, but despite our preparations, this critical interstate link
between New Jersey and New York, was completely devastated by the
historic storm surge and flooding that reached over two feet above the
prior 100-year flood level in Lower Manhattan.
The storm surge breached and blasted through our passenger stations
and the PATH tunnels, which are ancient by many of today's mass transit
standards, having been built at the turn of the last century more than
100 years ago.
The PATH network is dense and closely contained with complex
tunnels interlocking underneath the Hudson. The tunnels, along with the
box-like structures called caissons connecting the tunnels, contained
racks upon racks of critical and decades-old signal, switching, and
communications equipment that were flooded in a deluge of corrosive
seawater during Sandy.
The waters damaged the signals, switching, communications, and
other wayside equipment lining the tracks. Perhaps most visibly to the
public, our stations themselves experienced tsunami-like conditions.
Our historic Hoboken Station, one of the busiest in our system, was
flooded as an enclosed elevator shaft was crushed by the strength of
the floodwaters, sending millions of gallons pouring into the station.
In many of our stations, practically every wire, every circuit,
every last bit of infrastructure that existed below ground was damaged,
destroyed or otherwise in need of attention and repair. To compound the
problem, many of the parts that Sandy destroyed are no longer
manufactured because of their age and obsolescence. It has been like
trying to find replacement parts for an entire fleet of Edsels in the
21st century.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of our staff and many others who came
to help them, we commenced partial service restoration of the system on
November 6, re-establishing service between Journal Square and 33rd
Street in Manhattan. On November 12, we brought back service to Newark.
With continued round-the-clock efforts, on November 26, PATH
resumed service to the World Trade Center and Exchange Place stations.
And finally I am proud to say that [just yesterday], I joined PATH
employees for the inaugural run of restored Hoboken service. With that,
we have restored at least limited service to all of the stations in our
network.
We learned during the storm that the ingenuity and dedication of
our public servants is unrivaled. In the first days after the storm,
one of our workers, Tom O'Neill, risked his own life to jump into
several feet of murky floodwaters in a PATH tunnel to restart a pump by
hand, thus preventing further flood damage. O'Neill, in his own words,
``was just doing his job,'' and it is that attitude, that fortitude of
all of our PATH employees, that continues to bring us back.
We could not have come this far on our own. Companies and factories
from all over the country have helped in our recovery. In Pearl,
Mississippi the employees at Trilogy Communications worked day and
night, on a weekend no less, to prepare 3,200 pounds of replacement
specialized communications cable for our tunnels leading to the World
Trade Center.
Invensys Rail, based in Louisville, Kentucky, manufactured a
replacement microprocessor for our destroyed caissons in Hoboken in
record time: The process normally takes 6-9 months, but at our request,
Invensys worked 24/7 to deliver the microprocessor in just 6 weeks. But
with PATH still operating at less than full strength, and on partial
schedules, and as NJ Transit continues its own efforts to restore full
service, commutes are still badly disrupted.
What normally was a 45-minute ride home for many has now doubled in
length--or worse, as commuters displaced from PATH seek alternative
transit, bus or ferry service. Those with late evening shifts are still
bearing the burden of limited service, having to rely on late night
buses to make their way home.
We continue to rebuild and repair across our network, but as is the
case for the States of New York and New Jersey, the Port Authority will
need the Federal Government's help.
Simply, we are not at full strength and we have endured hundreds of
millions of dollars of damage. Old electric substations have been
patched together with cannibalized parts. Parts of our network are
operating on so-called ``manual block,'' with personnel communicating
by radio to mark trains passing stations while our signaling systems
are still under repair.
To bring our system back will require hundreds of millions of
dollars. This will go immediately into signal system repairs, electric
substation repairs, track-work, and communications systems, and the
rehab of rolling stock that was partially submerged in salt water. We
are still tallying the damage, but we now estimate that the costs to
fully repair and restore the PATH system may total over $700 million
dollars--more than $400 million than what we originally estimated to
repair our system.
It is also critical that we invest in mitigation measures to
protect our system from future storms so that we do not find ourselves
in the same situation just a few years from now. This will include
projects such as elevating portions of our track, elevating critical
substations, and strengthening critical caisson rooms within our
tunnels beneath the Hudson River. These mitigation measures will come
at significant cost, but without them, as we have learned over the last
2 months, the costs are even higher.
Some of you know that the Port Authority receives no taxpayer money
from either New York or New Jersey. We rely exclusively on user fees--
the fares our passengers pay, and rents and other fees--all revenue
streams that have their limitations. We are still assessing the exact
costs of repair and recovery, but our needs are significant.
I urge Congress to act as soon as possible in approving recovery
funding for the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region. The final
costs no doubt will be high, but the costs--should we fail to make
necessary repairs and investments--are unfathomable in terms of the
cost of lost productivity, a fractured transportation network, and the
economic output that it powers.
Thank you for your help, and for inviting me to speak today.