The nearly 400,000 New Yorkers who had been ordered to evacuate low-lying neighborhoods because of Hurricane Irene were told they could go home Sunday afternoon, but officials said the city's transit system probably won't be up and running again by the start of the work week.That could mean a rough start to the work week for millions.
Overall, the city made it through the storm fairly well, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in announcing he would lift the evacuation order covering 370,000 people by 3 p.m.
He said Irene inflicted significant damage, with retaining walls collapsing in some places and serious flooding across all the five boroughs.
But "whether we dodged a bullet or you look at it and said, 'God smiled on us,' the bottom line is, I'm happy to report, there do not appear to be any deaths attributable to the storm," the mayor said. He added: "All in all, we are in pretty good shape because of the extensive steps we took to prepare."
Among those steps was the shutting down of city subways, commuter rails and buses.
Jay Walder, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said it is not clear when service will be restored because damage to the various parts of the system will have to assessed first.
Walder said the shutdown — the first time the nation's biggest transit system suspended all service because of a natural disaster — was the right move, noting that some train yards were under water.
New York's subway system alone has more than 5 million riders a day.
"I think it's fair to say you're going to have a tough commute in the morning," Bloomberg said. "Tough commute tomorrow, but we have tough commutes all the time."
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