Businesses' Basements Flooded After Massive Water Main Break In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A very wet Sunday became even wetter in Brooklyn, when a massive water main break flooded the streets.
Businesses were damaged and some were forced to close early, CBS2's Christina Fan reported.
It took five hours to just stop the leak. Left behind was a gaping hole in the street. During that time thousands of gallons of water flooded the streets. Repair work was still going on during the evening hours.
As the sun came up in Sunset Park, water gushed from a hole in the middle of 44th Street and waves crashed five blocks down Fifth Avenue, leaving dangerous debris in their wake and trapping some people in their homes.
"Because of the barricades and the water gushing, I haven't been able to leave my house at all," resident Jacob Marino said.
Others found rivers inside their homes. One business owner showed Fan the foot of water inside the basement of her accessories store.
"Christmas is coming. We had a lot of toys down there, but like what can we do now?" Jessica Aca wondered.
There were similar problems down the street at a hardware store.
"Messed up everything. We're very sad right now. I'm very mad because it broke up our whole space over here and messed up merchandise," owner Mohamed Hassan Jr. said.
When the water did finally subside, foot traffic was still slow for some businesses, like one grocery deli that had no water. The employees said they were angry over how the situation had been handled.
"I wish let us know there was going to be no water for the rest of the day," business partner Montaser Alsaeidi said. "They told us it was probably going to be off for half an hour, that way we could have closed and saved employers money. Too late now."
The city told CBS2 water service was being restored on a rolling basis as repairs were completed.
Roadway restoration, however, was expected to take a bit longer.
