Gushing main leaves K’bridge and Riverdale high and dry

By Kevin Deutsch

A torrent of muck, rock and millions of gallons water flooded down Broadway at 231st Street when the area’s primary water main burst open Sunday morning.

Some people in Riverdale and Kingsbridge were without water for two days. Up the hill, Starbucks wasn’t making coffee on Johnson Avenue. Brown water came out of taps, and water pressure slowed to a trickle.

Those inconveniences quickly passed, and while the physical damage at Kingsbridge’s busiest intersection was extensive — a shattered, caved-in section of road, flooded store basements, and water-logged vehicles — it will likely be repaired long before the economic damage can be overcome.

Stores under the el lost thousands of dollars in sales, suffered water damage that will cost them thousands more, and saw stockpiles of inventory ruined by what many likened to the flash flooding seen after a natural disaster.

When the water main broke open at about 3:30 a.m., water rocketed up through the pavement like a geyser, speeding down Broadway and rushing into the basements of dozens of area businesses. Store owners opened their doors that morning to find boxes upon boxes of soggy, ruined merchandise. The collective losses of business affected could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, store owners said.

“It’s a disaster,” said Cheick Conde, owner of Masidi’s Urban African Store on Broadway, who lost about $30,000 worth of costly wooden masks, furniture, and handmade goods imported from Africa. “It could put me out of business.”

Mr. Conde, like many business owners in the area, was suffering financially even before the water main break. For years business has been slow in what’s known as the Kingsbridge Business Improvement District.

The district had begun efforts to forestall a further downturn, undertaking a beautification project to stave off closings and organizing a plant and tree grooming project. But the flooding set loose Sunday could cancel out gains made by those efforts, store owners said.