A water valve burst while crews were working on the pipes in upper Manhattan Tuesday morning, sending water gushing four stories into the sky, city officials say.
Crews were working on a 20-inch water main at 125th Street in Harlem at about 9 a.m. when a valve broke, creating a geyser that shot dozens of feet into the air, according to the city Department of Environmental Protection.
"You could see the water shooting up all the way to the bottom of the Viaduct, 125th Street, coming right out of the sewer, shooting straight up," said witness Amr Mohamed.
Crews closed an adjacent valve to stop the spray and worked Tuesday afternoon to fix the broken pipes. Some buildings in the area went without running water for a few hours as a result, including the popular Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant.
Service director Lizette LeBron said it was tough to turn away customers, "but we just kept the doors open and let them know what was going on."
She's hoping to make up for the lost business: "We'll be ready for dinner," she said.
It’s not clear if the cold weather played a role in the break, but it did temporarily complicate cleanup efforts, as crews combated both the water rushing from the pipes and the freezing pools that collected in the roadway.
Local
-- Lori Bordonaro contributed to this report.
