Marshall Street, J. Michael close as crews clean up water main break
UPDATED: Jan. 21, 2011; 1:45 p.m.
Marshall Street was still closed at noon Friday as crews continued to clean up a water main break at J. Michael Shoes.
Water Operations received a call at 7:30 a.m. when a pipe broke on J. Michael’s fire service, said Paul Travato, assistant superintendent of water operations.
Marshall Street was closed off to traffic and the sidewalk in front of J Michael’s was closed due to worries about stability of the sidewalk, said Pete O’Connor, commissioner of the Department of Public Works.
‘It looks pretty bad, and the foundation caved in,’ said Travato. ‘It caused a lot of damage.’
The store’s basement flooded up to the stairs and the wall collapsed. The power was turned off by National to allow the Syracuse Fire Department to pump water out, said Travato.
Jim Hicks, the manager of J. Michael, received a phone call this morning from the Syracuse Police Department about the water problem and arrived at the store at 9 a.m. to look into the problem. He said the store would be closed for a few days due to the damage.
‘They don’t know how it’s standing, there’s no foundation,’ he said.
The flooding damaged inventory, including Longchamp bags, Ugg boots and the North Face jackets, stored in the basement. Everything downstairs was worth over $100, Hicks said.
The incident occurred just before the Syracuse men’s basketball team plays Villanova, a weekend would have seen a lot of sales, Hicks said. He did not have an estimate on how much the store was losing out on.
‘It’s like a bad dream,’ Hicks said. ‘You get all excited having a big weekend, and then this happens.’
An assistant manager at Starbucks announced the coffee shop had to close down at 12:53 p.m. The water had been shut off for about 20 minutes because of the water main break. No damage occurred in the store.
About 15 years ago, the water main on Marshall Street was renewed and people chose not to put new fire services in, Travato said. A water main could break due to old pipes that have not been replaced, Travato said.
City of Syracuse Engineers, National Grid, the Department of Public Works, the water department and SPD were all on-site.
The fire department finished pumping the water out at about 11:30 a.m. and full extent of the damage is unknown.
Published on January 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille
