Storeowners along West Broadway in Tribeca were mopping up their basements and sifting through damaged goods Friday following an early morning water main break near the intersection of West Broadway and Duane Street. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water gushed from the ruptured 140-year-old pipe and into the nearby streets and basements.

As Karen Barwick, owner of the toy store Boomerang was discovering ruined tricycles in the store’s basement, Ann Benedetto. proprietor of the clothing store A Uno was next door, looking over now useless computer equipment and boxes of apparel. “I have product here for fall that’s soaking,” she said, picking up a dripping hat.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” said Lance Lappin, as he picked through wet belongings trying to salvage what he could in the basement of his hair salon, Lance Lappin, at 123 West Broadway. The damaged goods included irreplaceable slides, prints and magazine covers featuring his work over the past 25 years. Upstairs, his employees were drying photographs with hair driers.

“Later I’ll assess all the property damage,” said Lappin, his shoes wrapped in waterproof garbage bags, “but right now I need to get it out of here.”

Sharon Hershkowitz stood with her daughter Tiffany across the street from her store, Balloon Saloon, 133 West Broadway, where firefighters were still pumping water from the basement.

“It was up to the armpits,” said Hershkowitz, whose downstairs stock was completely ruined. “I’m only hoping that I can still get in and salvage the day’s balloons to get peoples’ balloon orders out so their parties aren’t sacrificed.”

The break occurred around 3:30 a.m. Aug. 7, and at about 5 a.m. several building on West Broadway were evacuated. The Department of Environmental Protection shut off water for buildings on the east side of West Broadway from Duane to Thomas Streets and on the north side of Duane Street between West Broadway and Church Street.

“The water was gushing up out of  two or three places,” said Maria Weisbin, a resident of 115 West Broadway who was awakened by the arrival of emergency workers. “It had erupted and pushed up the asphalt and it was gushing up out of the manhole covers, too.”
Around 5 a.m. Firefighters evacuated several buildings on West Broadway while Department of Buildings inspectors made sure that the structures were sound. The residents were allowed to return at noon.

“At 5:30 everyone in our building went to Bubby’s for breakfast,” said John Willenbecher, a resident of 145 West Broadway.

Steven Lawitts, commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said the break was the inevitable result of aging. The pipe, he said, was installed in 1870.
“Cast iron, after many years of freezes and thaws and street vibrations will break if not replaced,” he said.

Lewitts said the city spends $200 million to $300 million a year replacing aging water pipes. “But unfortunately we can’t be everywhere with programmed replacement, so we still have these random occurrences, which we have to treat just as quickly as we can.”

Water was shut off to about a dozen buildings on West Broadway, between Duane and Thomas Street, It was restored late Friday evening, according to the DEP.