Indeed, my normally 35 minute commute took over two hours this morning.

The real trouble to me was not the breakdown in the transit system. I am willing to be understanding of the fact that a 100 or so year old system will have failures under stress. The problem was the total lack of information available to help make informed decisions.

There was no way to know what was going on or how big a problem it was while actually on the trains. Transit workers gave no information, and police officers gave information that was wrong more often than not.

I saw at least one person collapse in the subway from the heat. Bystanders offered water and fanned her with whatever was available, while waiting for EMS.

All-in-all not our finest day in NYC. Makes me give more thought to how I'd get home in an emergency, and confirms that bugging out from NYC would be nearly impossible.