This ride, though, took about 14.
Amid torrential downpours and flooding, the 24-year-old New York University Law School student found herself stuck overnight on-board the train without electricity, ventilation, food or water. The toilets were unusable. Through the night she says she heard a stream of false promises that help was on the way.
"We were literally and figuratively in the dark for hours," she told CNN.
Akbari was one of thousands of people stranded in the New York metro area's public transit systems on Wednesday night due to flash floods from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. No mode of transportation was spared. Streets, subways, above-ground trains and airports were all flooded by the storm.
New York declared a state of emergency early Thursday morning, the first-ever flash flood emergency issued for the city. And the city implemented a travel ban until 5 a.m. ET. Those declarations came too late for many commuters, though, who became stranded at travel hubs far from home.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority outlined the issues early Thursday: The subway system flooded in 46 locations, about 65 buses were blocked or stuck and two Metro North Line trains were stranded. In addition, all New Jersey Transit rail service, except for the Atlantic City Rail Line, were suspended due to the flooding.
The New York City Fire Department had to rescue hundreds of people from subway stations, spokesman Frank Dwyer said. The head of the MTA said roughly 15 to 20 subway trains were stranded.
A couple stops into the trip, the train stopped on the tracks as the rain poured down and the flooding began. Passengers were told there was a mechanical issue with the train and that a rescue train was on its way. But hours went by without more information. So they sat.
Rivera, a 30-year-old who works in fashion, said the water levels were rising up to near the train's window.
"I'm sitting literally right next to the window, and I see the water at my level almost," she said. "I'm like, 'Am I going to have to swim out of here?'"
Three cars at one end of the train had a few inches of water, so passengers were moved to other cars not impacted, Garcia-Diaz said.
Several hours of waiting later, the electricity went out -- no lights, no air-conditioning and no ventilation, and no windows or doors open due to the pounding rain. The passengers eventually recognized they'd be stuck for the night and tried to go to sleep.
Отсюда
Люди застряли в метро и пригородных электричках - в темноте, без еды, воды и сортиров по 10+ часов. Естественно, им врали, что вот-вот они снова поедут, их спасут и все такое
И как если бы этого было мало, по крайней мере 13 человек утонуло прямо в их квартирах, которые располагались в полуподвалах.
The torrential downpours as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Ida that caused massive flooding throughout New York City late Wednesday, Sept. 1, and into the early morning hours of Thursday, Sept. 2, resulted in no fewer than 13 deaths throughout Brooklyn and Queens, according to authorities.
Almost all of the deaths were of victims who had drowned inside basement apartments that quickly became flooded.