Sinkhole shuts down water, road in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Repairs on Brooklyn sinkhole underway
CeFaan Kim reporting live

GREENWOOD HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Repairs are underway after an enormous crater opened up Tuesday in the middle of 23rd Street in Greenwood Heights, leaving the road impassable.

A look at the repairs:

The sinkhole is big enough to swallow a car.

The street collapsed beneath the bus Tuesday afternoon, just moments after the last child was dropped off.

What caused it was not immediately clear, but emergency management officials said there's a broken 12-inch water main beneath the street that caused the soil to give way.

Workers were ripping-up the street to locate the break.

As they did, water service remained shut-down to hundreds of residents up and down the block.

Marie Warsh suspected something was wrong on Monday. "I came out and ran an errand, and I hear water running through the grate that's right there, which I thought was odd because it hadn't rained, you know," Warsh said. "It's like I could hear it."

It's a huge headache for Alan Wolf, who owns G & W Food Products. Crates of food in his warehouse are supposed to be delivered to senior centers and food pantries Wednesday, but not if his trucks can't get down the street.

"It's in front of my business, it is right in front. There are going to be a lot of disappointed churches this week if they can't get their deliveries from us," Wolf said.