The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-01
BIG FLOOD ON THE WEST SIDE.
BURST MAIN SWAMPS STREETS
AND CELLARS.

Apartment House at D1th ~. and
BrOadway-JanitOrs' Families In Peril
MANY Blocks short OF water
into the air with ar explosive roar about
4 o'clock yesterday morning when a 81
inch water main burst at Ninety-eighth
street, just west OF Amsterdam e
With a force which the engineers described
as equal to that Of a thirty ton engine trav-
cling ten feet a second, the stream tore
through the twelve feet Of earth and broken
rock above the main, carrying mud r
cobblest ones with it, and produced a river
five feet deep that flooded cellars, drove
families scurrying out Of bed 20 the streets
and ruined. property roughly value at
about SIS. 600.
The water swirled down Ninety-eighth
street to Broadway, where a big part OF
il turned into Broadway, flowing to Ninety
sixth street and there turning into the cross
street and flowing down the steep hill to
the Hudson.
Shortly after the bursting OF the main
Lieut.. Z. j. Pagan Of Hook and Ladder
Company ~, on Amsterdam avenue was
notified. He ~telephoned to the Water De-
partment and sent three Of rs men around
to the scene of the food.
Herman Becker, the janitor at 200 West
Ninety-eighth street, was awakened by the
noise of the bursting main and rushing
water and found the water three feet
high outside the door OF his basement
apartment, so that ne did not dare open
il. He was forced to climb through the
window and help his wife and four children
through after him. in his fear that the
water would rush in and overwhelm them.
The furnace fires were extinguished.
Across the street James Donohue and
his wife and child We're driven from their
basement rooms, at 2O3, and also Edwin
Piper with his family, at POS. The water
was three feet deep in both places.
Most of the damage was done In. the
Wollaston apartment house, at Broadway
and N~inety-sixth street. The water poured
down the areaways until IL reached a depth
of five feet in the cellar and would very
probably ave reached the first floor had
il not overlooked through a connecting
doorway into the Wilmington apartment
house adjoining on Broadway. In the
Wollaston the dynamo which supplies the
elevator was stopped and the lights were
put out. Ash cans were hoated from the
front Of the cellar to the rear. Seventy
five trunks m considerable furniture
cellar. Much Of this valuable property
was damaged. Besides the dynamos the
electric transformers and converters, valued
roughly at 81 600, were destroyed:
Albert B. Baltzly. who has a drug store
on the Broadway corner OF the building,
lost a stock OF drugs, which he valued at
81 900. They were stored III the cellar,
The entire loss in the Wollaston was esti-
mated as about SIS 900 by John Mayer,
representing the agent In charge OF the
building. In the Wilmington the water
was three feet deep in the engine room,
where it ~extinguished the fires. n con-
tents OF some trunks were damaged, but
the loss was slight. The men of the Water
Department were pumping water out OF
the Wollaston until 3 O'Clock in the after
noon.
Mrs. Freda O'Connor and her news
stand, just across from the Wollaston,
were tumbled into a hole four feet deep
when the earth opened before her. IL had
been undermined Ivy the water entering
a manhole. George Ebinger, a subway
ticket chopper. helped her out. The flood
undermined a twenty-five foot portion Of
The sidewalk on Ninety-eighth street, which
fell two feet. The Broadway trolleys were
blocked until after S O'Clock, as the water
filled the conduits and shut of the power.
The Water Department men succeeded
in stopping the flow of water entirely about
7:i5 A. Nj. by closing the valves at Columbus
avenue and Ninety-eighth street and Just
above the break on the water main. The
flow of water was stopped gradually, as
the valves have TO be closed slowly because
of the water pressure on the pipes.
The district supplied by the broken pipe
extended from Ninety-eighth street to
l25th street west Of Central Park. The
break affected the section only by redu-
cling the pressure, so that upper stories
only were deprived Of water. Assistant
Engineer Pull of the Water Department
said that the cause of the break was prob
ably the long continued pressure OF a sharp
pointed boulder, many of which were in
Tho ooNfh Rllinn IN tho frannh ahnNA the
main. II would take three DAYS to repair
the break. he said.