Water Main Break Floods Central Park West, Cripples Subway

UPPER WEST SIDE -- A major water main break turned Central Park West into a river Monday, sending a flood of water gushing down the street and crippling subway service.

The MTA said the West 110th Street B and C station was closed down because of the flooding. B and C service was suspended between West 50th Street and 125th Street beginning just after 11 a.m. An Office of Emergency Management official said the station was hit with an 8-foot wave of water that swept downhill into the station Monday. No injuries were reported.

Fire officials said the water from the water main break caused a smoke condition on the tracks that caused the station to be shuttered. No one was injured or taken to the hospital. On 125th and St. Nicholas Avenue near the A,B,C and D lines, subway riders looked for alternate routes.

"I told my husband I'd be home in 10 minutes," said Tessa Kagbala, 27, who came to Harlem from her apartment on 55th Street and 11th Avenue with her 10-day old newborn for a stroll around the neighborhood.

"I'm now trying to find a bus route home. Something that would take 5 minutes is now going to take at least 30 minutes," she said.

An FDNY spokesman said the water was also "affecting many basements."

The gush started when a 30 inch water main that was nearly 100 years old broke, said Carter Strickland, the commissioner of the city's Department of Environmental Protection.

"it was an amazing scene," said Jean Carlos Valentin, 19, who lives on 107th Street at Central Park West.

"I heard a big splash, it was like a waterfall."

The water flowed into basements, pushing garbage and chunks of broken  road in its wake. Witnesses said a parked motorcycle was toppled.

Jose Polanco, 73, said he was scared his building at 107th Street  would collapse as the knee high water rushed past.

"I have never seen anything like that," he said.

Strickland said gush of water was turned off by 12.15 p.m.

Some customers briefly lost water supply in their homes, but it was back on within an hour, he said.

The portion of the water main that broke on Monday is a trunk line, which supplies water to several parts of the city, not just the Upper West Side. The water line dates back to 1917, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland said.

However, Strickland that there are several factors that contribute to a water main breaking, not just the age of the water main. He said that the only way that officials will learn what caused Monday's water main break is to excavate the broken pipe.

People who live near the water main break reported Monday seeing dirty brownish water coming from their taps and their toilets after the water main break. A DEP spokesman confirmed the reports, and said that the water is safe to drink.

"It's not dangerous, It's not a public health risk," DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov said.

When a water main trunk line breaks, other lines kick in to supply the affected buildings, stirring up sediment that results in the brown water, he said.

The Department of Buildings was on scene assessing whether there was any structural damage, an OEM spokesman said.

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