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India (1st innings): 521/8 decl
England (1st innings): 191 all out
England (2nd innings):
Alistair Cook batting 109
Nick Compton lbw b Khan 37
Jonathan Trott c Dhoni b Ojha 17
Kevin Pietersen b Ojha 2
Ian Bell batting 11
Extras (b 2, lb 4) 6
Total: (for 3 wickets in 69 overs) 182
Bowling:
Umesh Yadav 121320
Pragyan Ojha 247542
Ravichandran Ashwin 255720
Virender Sehwag 1010
Zaheer Khan 7391
Sachin Tendulkar 1080
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Tony Hill (New Zealand)
TV umpire: Sudhir Asnani
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama
Reserve umpire: Anil Chowdhury
Source: http://www.calcuttanews.net/index.php/sid/210805892/scat/701ee96610c884a6
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Oklahoma may not have tornadoes to worry about this time of year, but there was another disaster that occurred in the Sooner State this week.
The ASU hockey team made a clean sweep of both Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma after a parallel 6-1 victory on Saturday evening over the Sooners.
The Sun Devils shut out No. 15 Central Oklahoma (8-8) Thursday night and crushed No. 6 Oklahoma 6-1 on Friday and Saturday. It becomes the first time ASU has swept the series in Oklahoma in program history.
?It feels good,? coach Greg Powers said. ?We?re 18-0, and we?re feeling good about the direction we?re heading.?
Saturday started off faster than the night before for ASU, as junior captain and weekend star Colin Hekle scored his third goal in three games.
It wasn?t much longer into the first period before Hekle tacked on his fourth goal of the weekend to put the Sun Devils up 2-0 early.
?We played our game to a ?T,?? Hekle said. ?We feel pretty good winning 12-2 in two games.?
Hekle gives credit and applauds the guys who had to step up with ASU sophomore forward Liam Norris out for the series.
?Liam is a huge loss for us, and you can?t replace him,? Hekle said. ?Guys just did a little more. ? Everyone bought into the system.?
One Sun Devil who stepped up was junior goaltender Kyle Dietriech, who filled in flawlessly for starting junior goaltender Joe D?Elia, saving 20 of 21 shots.
?I believe in myself,? Dietriech said. ?First time all year, I got to play against a good team. I finally got to prove what I (could) do.?
The six goals scored last night involved six different Sun Devils, but Saturday night was a different story. Junior forward Brian McGinty led ASU with three goals and his first hat trick of the season. McGinty?s breakout game with three goals equaled a third of his total this season.
The ASU hockey program has broken several milestones this season thus far, from best start to a season, being ranked No. 1 for first time in school history and now the sweep in Oklahoma.
?This season has been a series of firsts in many ways, and we want to keep that going,? Powers said. ?I don?t feel like we?ve peaked.?
The Sun Devils get to heal all wounds and bruises for two weeks before their next series. That series will be against NCAA D-I Penn State (6-3), and would be the best time for ASU to peak.
?We?re not going there just to say we played Penn State,? Powers said. ?We?re going there to win.
?We haven?t lost, and we?re not going to want to give that up.?
?
Reach the reporter at mterrel@asu.edu
Source: http://www.statepress.com/2012/11/17/asu-hockey-causes-devastation-in-tornado-alley/
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Born in Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan) in 1932, Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations in 1966?69. He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Over the 70s and 80s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972?76), Reserve Bank Governor (1982?85) and Planning Commission head (1985?87).
In 1991, as India faced a severe economic crisis, newly elected Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao surprisingly inducted the apolitical Singh into his cabinet as Finance Minister. Over the next few years, despite strong opposition, Finance Minister Singh carried out several structural reforms that liberalised India's economy. Although these measures proved successful in averting the crisis, and enhanced Singh's reputation globally as a leading reform-minded economist, the incumbent Congress party fared poorly in the 1996 general election. Subsequently, Singh served as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India's Parliament) during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998?2004.
In 2004, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power, party president Sonia Gandhi surprisingly relinquished the Prime Minister-ship to Manmohan Singh. This Singh-led "UPA I" government executed several key legislations and projects, including the Rural Health Mission, the Unique Identification project, the Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the Right to Information Act and a historic Civil Nuclear Agreement with the United States. The latter nearly caused the fall of Singh's government as anti-American Left Front parties withdrew from the UPA. Although India's economy grew rapidly under UPA I, its security was threatened by several terrorist incidents (culminating in the 2008 Mumbai attacks) and a growing Maoist insurgency.
The 2009 general election saw the UPA return with an increased mandate, with Manmohan Singh retaining the office of Prime Minister.
After the Partition of India, his family migrated to Amritsar, India, where he studied at Hindu College. He attended Panjab University, Chandigarh, then in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively, standing first throughout his academic career. He went on to read for the Economics Tripos at Cambridge as a member of St John's College. He won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in 1955 and 1957. He was also one of the few recipients of the Wrenbury scholarship. In 1962, Singh completed his studies from the University of Oxford where he was a member of Nuffield College. His doctoral thesis "India?s export performance, 1951?1960, export prospects and policy implications" was later the base for his book "India?s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth".
In 1982, he was appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and held the post until 1985. He went on to become the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India from 1985 to 1987. Following his tenure at the Planning Commission, he was Secretary General of the South Commission, an independent economic policy think tank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland from 1987 to 1990.
Evidently, India was facing an economic crisis. At this point, the government of India sought relief from the supranational International Monetary Fund, which, while assisting India financially, imposed several conditions regarding India's economic policy. In effect, IMF-dictated policy meant that the ubiquitous Licence Raj had to be dismantled, and India's attempt at a state-controlled economy had to end. Accordingly, Singh, who had thus far been one of the most influential architects of India's socialist economy, slowly opened the Indian economy to foreign investment and business competition.
Rao and Singh thus implemented policies to open up the economy and change India's socialist economy to a more capitalistic one, in the process dismantling the Licence Raj, a system that inhibited the prosperity of private businesses. They removed many obstacles standing in the way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and initiated the process of the privatization of public sector companies. However, in spite of these reforms, Rao's government was voted out in 1996 due to non-performance of government in other areas. In praise of Singh's work that pushed India towards a market economy, long-time Cabinet minister P. Chidambaram has referred to Singh as the Deng Xiaoping of India.
In 1993, Singh offered his resignation from the post of Finance Minister after a parliamentary investigation report criticised his ministry for not being able to anticipate a US$1.8 billion securities scandal. Prime Minister Rao refused Singh's resignation, instead promising to punish the individuals directly accused in the report.
Singh is now a strong supporter of globalization, seeing India's immense labor capacity as a path to delivering Indian goods in a worldwide market and eventually relieving large-scale poverty.
Singh's government has continued the Golden Quadrilateral and the highway modernisation program that was initiated by Vajpayee's government. Singh has also been working on reforming the banking and financial sectors, as well as public sector companies. The Finance ministry has been working towards relieving farmers of their debt and has been working towards pro-industry policies. In 2005, Singh's government introduced the value added tax, replacing sales tax. In 2007 and early 2008, the global problem of inflation impacted India.
Singh has announced that eight more Indian Institutes of Technology will be opened in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The Singh government has also continued the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, begun by his predecessor, Mr. Vajpayee. The programme has included the introduction and improvement of mid-day meals and the opening of schools all over India, especially in rural areas, to fight illiteracy.
His government has also been criticized for not being able to reduce the Naxal terrorism that is menacing rural areas in Eastern and Central India. Singh's government has, however, extended the ban on the radical Islamic terror group Student's Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Singh's administration initiated a massive reconstruction effort in Kashmir to stabilise the region but after some period of success, insurgent infiltration and terrorism in Kashmir has increased since 2009. However, the Singh administration has been successful in reducing terrorism in Northeast India.
Political rival Jayalalithaa has claimed that the Manmohan Singh government has been suffering from "policy paralysis" in recent years.
Relations with Afghanistan have also improved considerably, with India now becoming the largest regional donor to Afghanistan. During Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to New Delhi in August 2008, Manmohan Singh increased the aid package to Afghanistan for the development of more schools, health clinics, infrastructure, and defence. Under the leadership of Singh, India has emerged as one of the single largest aid donors to Afghanistan.
Singh's government has worked towards stronger ties with the United States. He visited the United States in July 2005 initiating negotiations over the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. This was followed by George W. Bush's successful visit to India in March 2006, during which the declaration over the nuclear agreement was made, giving India access to American nuclear fuel and technology while India will have to allow IAEA inspection of its civil nuclear reactors. After more than two years for more negotiations, followed by approval from the IAEA, Nuclear Suppliers Group and the US Congress, India and the U.S. signed the agreement on 10 October 2008 with Pranab Mukherjee representing India.
Singh had the first official state visit to the White House during the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. The visit took place in November 2009, and several discussions took place, including on trade and nuclear power.
Relations have improved with Japan and European Union countries, like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Relations with Iran have continued and negotiations over the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline have taken place. New Delhi hosted an India?Africa Summit in April 2006 which was attended by the leaders of 15 African states. Relations have improved with other developing countries, particularly Brazil and South Africa. Singh carried forward the momentum which was established after the "Brasilia Declaration" in 2003 and the IBSA Dialogue Forum was formed.
Manmohan Singh's government has also been especially keen on expanding ties with Israel. Since 2003, the two countries have made significant investments in each other and Israel now rivals Russia to become India's defence partner. Though there have been a few diplomatic glitches between India and Russia, especially over the delay and price hike of several Russian weapons to be delivered to India, relations between the two remain strong with India and Russia signing various agreements to increase defence, nuclear energy and space cooperation.
On 22 May 2009, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister during a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The 2009 Indian general election was the largest democratic election in the world held to date, with an eligible electorate of 714 million.
In 2010, Newsweek magazine recognized him as a world leader who is respected by other heads of state, describing him as "the leader other leaders love." The article quoted Mohamed ElBaradei, who remarked that Singh is "the model of what a political leader should be." Singh is number 18 on the 2010 Forbes list of the world's most powerful people. Forbes magazine described Singh as being "universally praised as India's best prime minister since Nehru". Australian journalist Greg Sheridan praised Singh "as one of the greatest statesmen in Asian history."
Singh's public image has been tarnished recently with his government having been accused of corruption scandals since the start of its second term in 2009.
Time magazine's Asia edition for 10?17 July 2012 week, on its cover remarked that Singh was an "underachiever". The issue of the magazine claimed Singh appears "unwilling to stick his neck out" on reforms that will put the country back on growth path. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari rebutted the charges. UPA ally Lalu Prasad Yadav took issue with the magazine's statements. Praising the government, Prasad said UPA projects [were] doing well and asked, "What will America say as their own economy is shattered?".
Political opponents including L.K Advani have claimed that Singh is a "weak" Prime Minister. Advani declared "He is weak. What do I call a person who can't take his decisions until 10 Janpath gives instruction." The Independent, a British daily also claimed that Singh did not have genuine political power.
Upinder Singh is a professor of history at Delhi University. She has written six books, including Ancient Delhi (1999) and A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008). Daman Singh is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, and author of The Last Frontier: People and Forests in Mizoram and a novel Nine by Nine, she is married to an I.P.S official Ashok Patnaik who is on deputation to Intelligence Bureau. Amrit Singh is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Singh has undergone multiple cardiac bypass surgeries, the most recent of which took place in January 2009.
Singh and his wife both belong to the Kohli clan, though neither uses the name as their surname.
Singh's personal assets amount to five crore rupees (approx 1 million USD). He has property worth Rs 1.8 crore, a Rs 90 lakh house in Chandigarh and a Rs 88 lakh apartment in Vasant Kunj in Delhi. His bank deposits amount to Rs 3.2 crore.
| ! Year !! Name of Award or Honour !! Awarding Organisation | ||
| 2010 | World Statesman Award | Appeal of Conscience Foundation |
| 2005 | Top 100 Influential People in the World | |
| 2002 | Outstanding Parliamentarian Award | Indian Parliamentary Group |
| 2000 | Annasaheb Chirmule Award | Annasaheb Chirmule Trust |
| 1999 | H.H. Kanchi Sri Paramacharya Award for Excellence | Shri R. Venkataraman, The Centenarian Trust |
| 1999 | Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi | National Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
| 1997 | Lokmanya Tilak Award | Tilak Smarak Trust, Pune |
| 1997 | Justice K.S. Hegde Foundation Award | Justice K.S. Hegde Foundation |
| 1997 | Nikkei Asia prize for Regional Growth | Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. |
| 1996 | Honorary Professorship | Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi |
| 1995 | Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award (1994?95) | Indian Science Congress Association |
| 1994 | Finance Minister of the Year | Asiamoney |
| 1994 | Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award (1994?95) | Indian Science Congress Association |
| 1994 | Elected Distinguished Fellow of the London School of Economics | London School of Economics, Centre for Asia Economy, Politics and Society |
| 1994 | Elected Honorary Fellow, Nuffield College | Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. |
| 1994 | Elected Distinguished Fellow of the London School of Economics | London School of Economics, Centre for Asia Economy, Politics and Society |
| 1994 | Elected Honorary Fellow of the All India Management Association | All India Management Association |
| 1993 | Finance Minister of the Year | Euromoney |
| 1993 | Finance Minister of the Year | Asiamoney |
| 1987 | Padma Vibhushan | President of India |
| 1986 | Elected National Fellow, National Institute of Education | National Institute of Education |
| 1985 | Elected President of the Indian Economic Association | Indian Economic Association |
| 1982 | Elected Honorary Fellow, St. John's College | St John's College, Cambridge |
| 1982 | Elected Honorary Fellow, Indian Institute of Bankers | Indian Institute of Bankers |
| 1976 | Honorary Professorship | Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi |
| 1957 | Elected Wrenbury Scholar | University of Cambridge, U.K. |
| 1956 | Adam Smith Prize | University of Cambridge, U.K. |
| 1955 | Wright Prize for Distinguished Performance | St. John?s College, Cambridge, U.K. |
| 1954 | Uttar Chand Kapur Medal, for standing first in M.A. (Economics) | Panjab University, Chandigarh{Was then in Hoshiarpur,Punjab} |
| 1952 | University Medal for standing first in B.A. (Honors Economics) | Panjab University, Chandigarh |
;Other
|- |- |- |- |- |- |-
Category:1932 births Category:Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Category:Current national leaders Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Category:Finance Ministers of India Category:Governors of the Reserve Bank of India Category:Indian bankers Category:Indian civil servants Category:Indian economists Category:Indian National Congress politicians Category:Indian Sikhs Category:Living people Category:Manmohan Singh administration Category:Members of the Cabinet of India Category:Ministers for External Affairs of India Category:Panjab University alumni Category:People from Chakwal District Category:People from Chandigarh Category:Prime Ministers of India Category:Indian economists Category:Indian academics Category:Punjabi people Category:Punjab, India politicians Category:Recipients of the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award * Category:Members of the Planning Commission of India
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says the Republican Party needs to go back to basics to attract the broad coalition of voters credited with putting President Barack Obama back in the White House.
Kindergarten basics.
"If we want people to like us, we have to like them first," Jindal said on Fox News Sunday.
Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has a more nuts-and-bolts approach to bringing in some of the largest and fastest growing groups of Americans: He's forming a super PAC to support Republican candidates who back comprehensive immigration reform, including legalizing the status of an estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. without authorization.
The 2012 elections drove home trends that have been embedded for years in the fine print of birth and death rates, immigration statistics and census charts. Nonwhites made up 28 percent of the electorate this year, compared with 20 percent in 2000, with Hispanics comprising much of that growth. Obama captured a commanding 80 percent of the growing ranks of nonwhite voters in 2012, just as he did in 2008. Republican Mitt Romney won 59 percent of non-Hispanic whites, and although he dominated among white men - outperforming 2008 nominee John McCain among that group - he couldn't win.
Republicans have spent much of the time since the election wrestling with ways to appeal beyond their base of white men and married women. Nonetheless, in a conference call to big donors last week, Romney credited Obama's win to "extraordinary financial gifts from government" he said the president gave groups in his base coalition: Latinos, African-Americans and young people.
Both Jindal and Gutierrez backed Romney's bid for the White House, but distanced themselves from his post-election comments.
Jindal, the incoming chair of the Republican Governors Association and a potential presidential candidate in 2016, on Sunday said slighting people simply isn't good politics.
"You don't start to like people by insulting them and saying their votes were bought. We are an aspirational party," he said.
Jindal said the Republican Party needs to convince voters it is the party of the middle class and upward mobility. Its conservative principles "are good for every single voter" and it "has to campaign for every single vote," he added.
"We also don't need to be saying stupid things," Jindal said, referring to GOP Senate candidates in Missouri and Indiana who lost their races after comments about rape that were widely criticized.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the GOP group's incoming vice chair, said also on Fox News Sunday that governors are key to bringing a diversity of voters to the GOP. Thirty states have elected Republican governors, an indication that "the trust factor is there."
"We've got a message that works for young people, that works for people who come to our country from other countries, and, basically for anyone who wants to live their piece of the American dream," Walker said. "I think that starts with our governors as great messengers."
Gutierrez, who served under President George W. Bush, said the country cannot grow without immigrants and the Republican Party is a natural home for them.
"We are the party of prosperity, of growth, of tolerance," Gutierrez said in remarks taped Friday for CNN's "State of the Union." ''These immigrants who come across, and what they do wrong is risk their lives, and they come here and they work because they want to be part of the American dream. That is what the GOP is."
Gutierrez said he is working with Charlie Spies, who created the largest super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, Restore Our Future, on a super PAC to back candidates that support "a path, a process for legalization of workers who are here undocumented."
"First they have to be legalized," Gutierrez said. "Then you have to find a way to get into a line for the green card. ... There will be requirements. And we'll have to negotiate some sort of requirements."
Gutierrez said Republicans for Immigration Reform is about people from all over the world, including Hispanics, Asians, West Africans and Ethiopians.
"If we get this right... the 21st century is ours," Gutierrez said, referring to the GOP. "If we get it wrong, shame on us."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/20130622/jindal-liking-people-is-key-to-expanding-gop-tent
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David Quammen talks about his latest book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. From his website: "The next big and murderous human pandemic, the one that kills us in millions, will be caused by a new disease--new to humans, anyway. The bug that's responsible will be strange, unfamiliar, but it won't come from outer space. Odds are that the killer pathogen--most likely a virus--will spill over into humans from a nonhuman animal."
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David Quammen talks about his latest book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. From his website: "The next big and murderous human pandemic, the one that kills us in millions, will be caused by a new disease--new to humans, anyway. The bug that's responsible will be strange, unfamiliar, but it won't come from outer space. Odds are that the killer pathogen--most likely a virus--will spill over into humans from a nonhuman animal."???
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3d487e92556d9627c894ed5aac6f112f
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey Transit's struggle to recover from Superstorm Sandy is being compounded by a pre-storm decision to park much of its equipment in two rail yards that forecasters predicted would flood, a move that resulted in damage to one-third of its locomotives and a quarter of its passenger cars.
That damage is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars and take many months to repair, a Reuters examination has found.
The Garden State's commuter railway parked critical equipment - including much of its newest and most expensive stock - at its low-lying main rail yard in Kearny just before the hurricane. It did so even though forecasters had released maps showing the wetland-surrounded area likely would be under water when Sandy's expected record storm surge hit. Other equipment was parked at its Hoboken terminal and rail yard, where flooding also was predicted and which has flooded before.
Among the damaged equipment: nine dual-powered locomotive engines and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million.
"If there's a predicted 13-foot or 10-foot storm surge, you don't leave your equipment in a low-lying area," said David Schanoes, a railroad consultant and former deputy chief of field operations for Metro North Railroad, a sister railway serving New York State. "It's just basic railroading. You don't leave your equipment where it can be damaged."
After Reuters made numerous inquiries to state and local officials this week about the decision to store equipment in the yards, an unidentified senior transportation official told the New York Post that NJ Transit had launched an internal probe, the Post reported on Saturday.
NJ Transit Chairman James S. Simpson, the state's transportation commissioner, told Reuters on Saturday he knew of no such investigation. NJ Transit spokesman John Durso said the agency had not launched a probe but would examine its response to the storm, as "is standard procedure following any major incident."
The Post said it stood by its story.
As of Friday, almost three weeks after the storm, the agency was still struggling to restore full service for its 136,000 daily rail commuters, running just 37 trains into New York Penn Station during the morning rush hour, rather than its usual 63. More service will be restored on Monday. The disruptions have caused long delays and crowded trains for Jersey residents who work in the biggest U.S. city.
James Weinstein, NJ Transit's executive director, said he did not expect the loss of equipment to have a significant effect on service in the coming weeks and months.
Sandy was a storm of rare ferocity, and some damage was inevitable. High winds and a crushing storm surge damaged every conceivable element of the rail system.
The massive, slow-moving storm, which came ashore near Atlantic City, sent boats crashing into a key rail bridge and gigantic trees toppling onto wires and tracks. A rush of seawater washed out miles of coastline track and a switch that directs some of NJ Transit's most heavily traveled rail lines into New York City.
Floodwaters zapped the computer system that guides trains and alerts passengers; damaged a substation that powers much of the agency's main artery into the city; coursed into one of the two tunnels that funnel its trains under the Hudson River; and left a major hub in Hoboken under nine feet of water and five feet of mud.
Still, some of the damage could have been avoided with better planning, railroad experts say.
YARD IN A SWAMPY CROOK
Most of the avoidable damage came at NJ Transit's Meadows Maintenance Complex, a sprawling 78-acre network of tracks and buildings in an industrial area of Kearny that is surrounded by wetlands. The complex is the primary maintenance center for the agency's locomotives and rail cars, with both outdoor and indoor equipment storage; repair, servicing, cleaning, inspection and training facilities; and the agency's rail operations center, which houses computers involved in the movement of trains and communication with passengers.
The yard sits in the swampy crook where the Passaic and Hackensack rivers come together. Elevation maps show that it lies between 0 and 19 feet above sea level. The National Hurricane Center was predicting a storm surge of 6 to 11 feet along the New Jersey and New York coast on top of an unusual tide that already had the rivers running high.
Forecasts were that the storm would make landfall on Monday, October 29, somewhere along the New Jersey or New York coast. On Friday, October 26, executives from the New York City subway system and all of the region's commuter rail systems - NJ Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad - decided they would halt all service Sunday night.
NJ Transit's last trains left their originating stations at 11 p.m. on Sunday, and workers spent the next 12 hours securing equipment, said Weinstein.
At NJ Transit's emergency command center, reports streamed in from the governor's command center in Trenton, county emergency management officials and the National Weather Service, which provided frequent updates on the storm's progress. Monitoring those reports and advising the agency on what to expect from the storm was NJ Transit Police Capt. Robert Noble, who is well-versed and trained in monitoring storms, Weinstein said.
Noble said he monitored weather reports for all of the agency's bus lots and rail yards statewide. Flooding was predicted for virtually every corner of the system, he said.
"Based upon the information we had at that hour, the complex was not the highest-threat location that we had," he said.
Yet a Reuters review of information disseminated before the storm found detailed maps issued by the National Hurricane Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, all warning that both the rail hub in Hoboken and the Meadows complex in Kearny would flood. Asked if NJ Transit executives saw those maps and factored the predictions into their decision-making, Weinstein said the agency considered the storm surge predictions but also relied on history and experience.
FORECASTS PROVED HIGHLY ACCURATE
The agency has been operating its Meadows complex since the 1980s, and it had never flooded, not even during Hurricane Floyd, which caused record flooding in New Jersey in 1999, said Kevin O'Connor, vice president and general manager of rail operations. Several former NJ Transit employees who worked there for decades said they could not recall any time it had flooded.
A map of the storm surge from Hurricane Irene in August 2011, prepared by the FEMA, shows water came within about 400 yards of the rail complex. O'Connor said employees had trouble getting to the complex during that storm because surrounding roads had flooded, but the water never encroached on the rail yard.
"Our experience and all of the information we had led us to conclude that our equipment was in the safest possible place," Weinstein said. "There was no reason for us to think that the kind of flooding that we actually experienced would happen there."
But this time, the weather forecasters proved right, and history proved wrong. Maps of the forecasters' predictions, compared with those of the actual storm surge, show the computer models were remarkably accurate. Tides added another 4.5 feet of water to the storm surge in the area, said Philip Orton, research scientist in physical oceanography and specialist in storm surges at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Given the value of the equipment stored at the Meadows yard during the storm, it is hard to imagine why NJ Transit executives gambled that history would repeat itself, said Alain Kornhauser, director of the Transportation Research Center at Princeton University.
Weinstein said he could not yet put a dollar amount on the damage. A Reuters review of Board of Directors meeting minutes and news accounts describing equipment purchases found the damaged locomotives and passenger cars worth about $900 million.
Kornhauser was especially critical that nine new dual-motor engines, which together cost more than $107 million, had been left in an area predicted to flood. Even if the risk of flooding had been infinitesimal, he said, the agency's newest, most expensive equipment should have been moved to higher ground.
"What do you do with your personal valuable assets when you hear a hurricane is coming?" he said. "You put them in your pocket and get out of there, don't you? You don't need to be a rocket scientist for that one, do you?"
NJ Transit's sister railroads in New York did move their rolling stock to higher ground on the Sunday night before the storm.
After consulting "slosh maps," which predicted which areas would flood, Long Island Rail Road moved hundreds of train engines and cars from its huge Westside Yard just west of Penn Station in New York City and other low-lying yards scattered across its system, said Joe Calderone, the railroad's vice president of public affairs. Much of the equipment was moved to a large rail yard at Jamaica, Queens. What wouldn't fit in yards deemed safe from flooding was parked on the main line and other high-elevation tracks.
No LIRR locomotives or rail cars were damaged, Calderone said.
None of New York City's subway cars were damaged during Sandy. The yards at Coney Island, the largest yard in the system, and the Rockaways were emptied before the storm, with equipment moved to other yards or parked on lines not vulnerable to flooding, spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
Metro North was so concerned about the potential storm surge on the Hudson River that it asked National Weather Service forecasters to run computer models to predict whether certain yards would flood. Railroad executives then used those predictions to decide where to move equipment, said Howard Permut, the railroad's president.
"We had direct conversations with some of the forecasters themselves," he said. "They ran a bunch of models for that."
Some stock was exposed nevertheless. North of New York City, in Croton-on-Hudson, the storm surge from the Hudson River flooded Metro North's Harmon rail yard. There, workers had moved equipment to the northernmost point of the yard in an effort to keep it dry, said spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. Still, two locomotives and 11 passenger cars were damaged, she said.
SALTWATER, 5 FEET DEEP
NJ Transit's Meadows yard was particularly vulnerable. The National Hurricane Center's models from 7 a.m. on the Saturday before the storm predicted water would lap at its edge. By 7 p.m. Sunday, some models predicted most of the yard would flood. That night, NJ Transit began moving rail cars and locomotives there.
By 11 a.m. Monday, scores of locomotives and hundreds of rail cars awaited the storm in the Meadows yard.
NJ Transit has 203 locomotives and 1,162 rail cars, and 62 locomotives and 261 rail cars were damaged. That amounts to 24 percent of the fleet.
All but 15 percent or 20 percent of the damaged stock was flooded at the Meadows yard, said Durso, the NJT spokesman. The rest were in Hoboken, which also saw severe flooding. Durso said he could not provide specific counts of damaged equipment by location.
Weinstein and O'Connor were at the Meadows complex on Monday afternoon during the storm, Weinstein said, and they remained confident in their decision. "There was no reason for anybody to believe that the flooding was going to be anything close to what we experienced," he said.
By late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, it became clear they had miscalculated.
Water had surrounded the maintenance buildings by 10 p.m., Durso said. By 2 a.m., water had come inside, and employees called O'Connor to tell him about it.
The water was as deep as five feet in some of the complex's maintenance areas, Weinstein said. Out in the yard, it was deep enough to submerge automobiles. Salt water rose above the wheel wells of the locomotives and rail cars, engulfing brakes, electrical systems, heating and air-conditioning units, batteries and traction motors that help power the cars and soaking insulation panels and seat cushions.
Some of the equipment, Weinstein said, had already been taken out of service for repairs before the storm. Some of the repair work is already under way.
He said he could not yet estimate the cost or time to repair the equipment. Metro North expects to spend more than $100,000 repairing each of its damaged rail cars, Anders said. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority spent about $1.5 million repairing one locomotive and 12 passenger cars that flooded during Hurricane Irene, said Ron Hopkins, SEPTA's assistant general manager for operations. The work took more than a year.
Should NJ Transit's costs be similar, they would face a repair bill of more than $32 million.
Weinstein said all of his attention to date has been on restoring service, and he has not had time to reflect on lessons learned. But both he and Governor Chris Christie say there will be a review of the agency's response to the storm.
"You can prepare for a worst-case scenario, but the standard of preparedness was definitely raised by this storm," said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak. "As we did post-Hurricane Irene, we will be evaluating how we did and where we can improve, and make changes for the future. But, again, this was a hit of historic proportions."
(Additional reporting by Melanie Hicken; research by Lisa Schwartz; Editing by Maurice Tamman and Michael Williams)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-jersey-railway-put-trains-sandy-flood-zone-020644706.html
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