A major water main break shut down a portion of the Cross Bronx Expressway and left several motorists stranded early Thursday, officials said.
The break occurred around 3 a.m. at Jerome Avenue and West 175th Street in Morris Heights, according to the FDNY.
As a result, all southbound lanes of the Cross Bronx Expressway were closed at Jerome Avenue, the Office of Emergency Management tweeted.
They reopened later in the morning, the city’s Office of Emergency Management tweeted around 9 a.m.
Seven cars were stranded and eight people were rescued, according to the FDNY. No one was reported hurt.
But buildings in the area, including the Iglesia Cristo la Cabeza, a church on 176th St and Jerome Ave., were badly flooded, causing severe damage. Water flooded the entire basement, and bags and other items could be seen floating around Thursday morning.
“Everything is gone,” pastor Alex Tapia told the Post. “Maybe about $ 27 to 30 thousand to fix everything. Oh boy. Look at it, just look at it. We have to cancel services and fix everything. Thank God nobody was down there.”
Another water main break happened in 2011 and the church is still in court over the damages, he said.
Janitor Jonny Cedeno, 46, saw the damage when he went to pray at the church Thursday morning.
“Downstairs we had computers, TV, chairs, it was a Sunday school,” he said. “We gotta take all this water out…. Last time it happened, it was summer, we were able to work, but now it’s winter, it’s going to be tough.”
At Petel Yengue Meat supermarket on Jerome Avenue, employees were cleaning up the dirty floor and moving boxes of food.
“The basement is really bad, so many things are gone,” manager Fatoumata Barry said. “Just two days ago we put in all new merchandise. We have our big walk-in box [freezer] downstairs. I can’t even estimate [how much damage there is.] Our computers are not working, we don’t have water. We don’t know when we can open.”
“Why did this happen again?” he asked, referring to the 2011 incident. “The pipe is not fixed. They need to do their job, they need to fix those pipes.”
Crews from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection are on scene, in the process of shutting off water to the area, a spokesman confirmed.
They are also clearing catch basins, allowing water to drain from the underpass of the expressway, he said.
Service on the 4 train between 161 St-Yankee Stadium and Woodlawn was temporarily suspended because of the flooding, but then restored in both directions.
