When a Water Main Breaks in Manhattan

Before leaving home for work on Monday morning I noticed the toilet water was dark. For a moment I thought I had forgotten to flush. But I hadn't and when I flushed again the color didn't change I thought the problem was in the apartment. After all, our kitchen sink had just been fixed as had that of our upstairs neighbor.

But when I reached Broadway via Columbus and saw NYPD and MTA employees walking on a very wet street I realized a water main had broken. Had I been out half an hour earlier I'd have been swimming in it.

Broken water mains are a fact of aging infrastructure. But when a water main breaks in NYC the whole world knows about it just as with the blackout last summer. Yet had I walked down Central Park West I would have never known anything was askew. The fact that I almost always walk to work helps. Had I realized on the subway I would have learned the 1, 2 and 3 were completely shut down. One of my colleagues who lives near Broadway and 98th found this out the hard way. Taking the A, B, C or D wasn't an option as there were lines leading into the subway. My colleague had to walk across Central Park to catch a 6 train on the East Side. And I thought the T in Boston was a pain in the ass. Well, it is but....

The worst of it is around Broadway and 62nd. When I walked by the area after my swim several businesses were closed for the evening because of water main break and might still be closed tomorrow. Time is money especially in a New York minute. In which case those businesses might be taking on more than water. 

But by tomorrow morning this will be water under the bridge for most New Yorkers.