Tonight as Mayor Bill de Blasio was urging people to “take mass transit to work tomorrow” in a poorly timed tweet, commuters who take the 1, 2, and 3 subway lines were struggling to get home — or learning once they got there that they have no water service. Around 6:51 p.m., a 12-inch water main burst at 13th Street and Seventh Avenue, flooding the West Village streets and the subway station below. Photos show water filling the intersection and gushing over subway cars stopped in the station. According to CBS New York, about 500 people had to be evacuated from a 1 train.
FDNY Battalion Chief John Porretto told NBC New York that the water in the station was about a foot and a half deep, and MTA crews are using pumps to drain it. Poretto said a Con Edison crew working nearby may have hit a water pipe.
Around 9:30 p.m. 7th Avenue was still closed at 14th Street. There is currently no train service on the 1, 2, and 3 between Chambers Street and Times Square in both directions. Some 2 trains are running from Nevins Street to 149th Street-Grand Concourse.
The main was shut off and by 8:40 p.m. the water was receding. Some residents in the area will be without water for at least several hours as crews work to repair the break, but Councilman Corey Johnson said there weren’t many buildings affected because the main break was relatively small and some buildings in the area have their own water towers.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
