According to an unidentified MTA worker, the burst pipe occurred some time before 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 5, at the intersection of East 206th Street and Bainbridge Avenue. Water was seen coming up from multiple locations in the street and even from the wall and ceiling at the East 205th Street subway station.

Workers at the Galaxy Coffee Shop located on Bainbridge Avenue at the northwest corner of the intersection were feverishly working to stop water from coming into their restaurant, first using a broom and later a snow shovel, pushing the water out into the street.

One unidentified Galaxy worker pointed to the brown water that seemed to be bringing up sand. “You lucky to go to the beach. If you didn’t go yesterday, it’s coming here!” he joked as the rushing water filled the intersection and headed east on East 206th Street and north and south on Bainbridge. One man was observed falling off his bicycle as he rode off the curb and into the flowing water that reached the top of the curb.

Meanwhile, Nicky’s Coffee Shop, located on the southwest corner of Bainbridge Avenue and East 206th Street, never even opened, and someone had posted a sign on the shuttered gate that read, “Closed due to no water in the building.” The water had reportedly been shut off to the 5-story building, located at 284-286 East 206th Street in Norwood.

A pair of workers from New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) appeared to be having a difficult time removing the manhole cover closest to the flowing water, even after one of the workers took several hard swings at it with a sledgehammer.

The same workers would later remove the sewer cap across Bainbridge Avenue at East 206th Street, and another at Bainbridge Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue East. At both sites, the men would remove a mound of black gunk.

The streaming water traveled down Bainbridge Avenue to the main road of the eastbound lane of Mosholu Parkway and was later observed continuing to flow down a sewer on Marion Avenue, six blocks away.

DEP workers eventually shut down East 206th Street, and some sections of the roadway appeared to be buckling. The repair will likely be a prolonged headache for residents of the area. A call by Norwood News to Nicky’s Coffee Shop went unanswered. Norwood News contacted DEP for comment. We did not receive an immediate response.