Yesterday morning's rain caused a recently installed sewer main to burst, flooding the basement and parking garage of a Battery Park City luxury apartment building. Water levels reached up to 20 feet. Not only were car owners greeted with news that their vehicles were either submerged or floating on top of sewer water, hundreds of tenants at 90 West Street were evacuated.
Fire officials explained that, per WNBC, "rain flooded a re-routed sewer pipe, and the water sewage came flooding back in because of the high tide." The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns 90 West, said that the flooding occurred "when a sewer main pipe near 90 West St. was temporarily cut and not capped during the relocation of a transformer vault as part of work at the World Trade Center site." Wait a minute - another mid-construction snafu?
The Fire Department worked to pump out water from, and other utilities were turned off in the process - and it may take days to turn them back on. Management at 90 West is offering to pay for tenants' hotel rooms ("as long as it is a reasonable rate"), and reader dietrich said that pamphlets were being handed out, naming six hotels with rooms available to tenants. He also noted, "The pedestrian walkway bridge crossing the Westside Highway into World Financial Center One was also without electricity and had to be lit up with portable lanterns."
Photograph 90 West's lobby (the only place with light) - and note the wires and hoses running out - by dietrich on Flickr
