By Tuan Nguyen
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — A broken pipe left more than 540 people on the Upper West Side without water for hours on Monday before it was restored, officials said.
West 94th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues was left partially dry starting around 6 a.m. Monday morning after a service line broke inside the Independence House at 176 W. 94 Street, a Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said.
DEP crews shut off the water supply to the street and the leak stopped, and crews from Liberty Plumbing were dispatched to repair the water line, according to a DEP spokeswoman.
Crews were tearing up the street throughout the day Monday to reach the affected line. One lane of cars were allowed to pass during the street construction.
"The whole basement was flooded late last night. All the garage, the laundry and my office downstairs was flooded," said Santonio Espaiwat, 55, the superintendent of Independence House.
The building is also home to the Screme Gelato Bar, which was unable to make coffee for the morning rush hour Monday thanks to the water outage.
"I couldn’t sell any drinks the whole morning. It’s five hours," said Christopher Donnellon, 23, who stood in front of a sign that read, "Sorry! No coffee at this time."
Water was restored to the building by noon, a DEP spokeswoman said.
