Hurricane Sandy Takes Over NYC

     The article, "NYC Evacuations Begin Over Hurricane Sandy; Public Schools Closed", was written by Jennifer Peltz in The Huffington Post on October 28, 2012. Each day, more than five million New York city residents use the city's subway system and buses to get to work, school, and around town. As of today, Sunday October 28, 2012, the city's transit system, subways and Metro-North and Long Island commuter trains, will shut down beginning at 7 p.m. , with the last city bus ending at 9 p.m. Along with the city's transit system, the city's school system, which serves about one million students, will close Monday. Both these systems are our nation's largest, and the impact of their shut downs will greatly effect the city in a negative way. Hurricane Sandy, which is expected to have an impact on cities ranging from the Great Lakes to the East Coast, was headed north from the Caribbean, and is expected to hit a cold front along with a snowstorm. If the storm hits a high tide, the effects on low-lying areas, especially the subway systems who are expected to be flooded by next week, will be much more severe than Hurricane Irene. The Tropical Storm Irene last year also forced the city's transit and school system to shut down. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that a storm surge of about six to eleven feet was expected, which was followed by his announcement of ordering residents in low-lying areas, such as lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, to evacuate immediately. However, The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq OMX Group still plan to open Monday, which will cause many problems for employees who arrive to work using the city's transit system.