Water main break floods Union Square retailers

Crews work to drain the basements of businesses on Geary Street after a Central Subway project contractor broke a water main near Union Square. Crews work to drain the basements of businesses on Geary Street after a Central Subway project contractor broke a water main near Union Square. Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Water main break floods Union Square retailers 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

A subway construction crew hit a water main just off San Francisco's Union Square on Saturday, sending several hundred thousand gallons of water flooding into the basements of luxury retailers, city officials said.

A construction crew working on the Union Square station for the Central Subway punctured the water line in the early morning hours, and city fire and water crews worked into the afternoon pumping out businesses' flooded basements, said Lily Madjus, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

High-end retailers along Geary Street between Stockton Street and Grant Avenue - including Chanel, Bulgari, Lacoste and Jimmy Choo - were impacted, as was Neiman Marcus across the street, said fire Battalion Chief Brook Baker. Some businesses in Maiden Lane also experienced flooding, officials said.

The financial toll of the red carpet casualties was unclear, although Baker said there was about 2 feet of water in some of the basements at one point. The flooding had dropped to between 6 to 12 inches by mid-afternoon.

"We're working on removing the water and salvaging as much merchandise as we can," Baker said. "Some of the buildings have so much water in the basement that we had to shut off power so there's no chance of people getting electrocuted."

Some of the stores, including Chanel and Bulgari, were cordoned off behind yellow emergency tape and inaccessible to weekend customers. A large orange hose and generator to pump out water was visible snaking out of the Lacoste store. Staff at the retailers declined to comment.

Paul Rose, a spokesman for the S.F. Municipal Transportation Agency, which is building the Central Subway, said it appeared that a project contractor hit the water main at about 4:15 a.m. Depending on terms of the contract, the city could seek to have that contractor compensate the retailers.

"We are going to investigate fully to find out exactly what and why this happened to prevent it from occurring again," Rose said. "We certainly apologize for the inconvenience and are working with other city agencies to finalize repairs."

The city "will continue to work with those stores that were affected," Rose said.

The break comes as California is in a three-year drought and state officials are considering mandatory water conservation methods.