Broken water pipe floods street, cars underwater in Oakland Gardens

OAKLAND GARDENS, Queens (WABC) – A water pipe rupture in Queens on Friday flooded several city blocks and left more than a dozen cars underwater on Friday.

The main one broke at 67th Avenue and 210th Street in Oakland Gardens, closing the street.

NewsCopter7 was at the scene, showing the damage.

Emergency teams from the Ministry of Environmental Protection intervened to assess the situation and make necessary repairs, and it was said to be a race to contain the fallout.

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The owner of one of the submerged cars, who said she parked there Thursday night, counts her blessings despite losing her vehicle.

“I’m lucky to be alive, that’s all,” she said.

Resident Huang Yisheng ended up with 2 feet of water in his basement, which is actually the least of his problems.

“It’s so bad for us,” he said. “But the biggest problem is my (flooded) boiler and water heater … My wife is sick. She has lung cancer. That’s the problem. No heat, no hot water.”

He had sandbags to contain the floods and a rake to clean up the mud.

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Workers searched for the drain plugs, which ultimately did the trick and allowed the water to drain out – but not before large numbers of residents waded through the mess or had to make a detour.

“So we have trails everywhere,” said cyclist Ralphie Carvajal. “And I guess today is white water rafting.”

The water was turned off and workers cleaned out sumps to help alleviate flooding on the streets.

DEP later determined that the rupture had occurred on a 12-inch main pipe and that about 20 homes were without water as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The investigation continues into the cause of the rupture.

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