LaGuardia Airport & metro highways challenge travelers when it rains
When I arrived in New York last Friday (the 23rd), it was raining, as expected according to the forecast. My flight from Denver to LaGuardia Airport circled for a time before being cleared to land. No surprise either. That happens more often than not coming into any of the New York airports.
- Gray, gloomy and very wet LaGuaria Airport last Friday around 3:00 p.m.
Even though my expectations of conditions at New York airports are not high, I was surprised that the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which operates the airports, hasn’t gotten around to fixing the roof in a decade or more. I haven’t been at LGA for 2½ years, but it has been raining virtually every time in mid-term memory that I have flown in or out of there. And there have always been buckets or bus pans on the floor to catch the drips.
Looking back toward the gates from Concourse C security.
A pair of bus pans, just two of the several vessels on the concourse floor to catch the drips from the leaking roof..
I’m in Manhattan now, but my first destination on this trip was Fairfield County, where I grew up. The next transport from the airport to Connecticut was Prime Time, departing after a 40-minute wait. I expected a full van but was ushered to a cushy limo with just one other passenger. I was heading for Norwalk, where I grew up. She was going home to Westport, one town farther east. The vehicle was comfortable, which was a very good thing, since the ride took more than 2½ hours for something like 50 miles. It is usually about an hour.
The driver crossed the Triborough Bridge with no problems, butthen the Major Deegan Expressway (Interstate 95 and a straight shot to Norwalk) was stalled. Totally stalled. He threaded through the torrential downpour onto a series of roads and parkways that I didn’t recognize, including a detour through the town of Rye, where he made several false starts and U-turns due to flooded intersections. I would have taken pictures, but the dank day and the l
When all was said it done, it took longer to get from my arrival gate to my Norwalk destination than it did to fly from Denver to New York. The next day’s news reported that the New York area had received 2½ inches of rain on Friday, which the soggy ground could not absorb and which defied choked storm drains to handle.
