The first thing you noticed walking through the streets lined with art galleries between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea, on Wednesday, was the constant, undulating roar of generators, and the hoses, in clumps of three or four, snaking out of just about every gallery, from which cold water that had come flooding in from the Hudson River now gushed into the street. But if you peeked into the darkened galleries — no one here had electricity — you got a sense of the toll Hurricane Sandy has taken on the district, an important part of the arts economy.

Gallery owners and employees — some calm and philosophical, some too distraught to speak — spent Wednesday sorting through the artworks that had been hanging on their walls or were packed in their storage rooms, separating those that were irrevocably damaged from those that stood a good chance of being restored. Some owners described themselves as lucky, having suffered less extensive damage than their neighbors. But scarcely a gallery was unscathed.

“We were expecting a foot of water, and we got four,” said David Zwirner, who was about to mount an exhibition of works by Luc Tuymans and Francis Alÿs at his gallery on West 19th Street. “There was a lot of damage, but it would be impossible at this point to say how much. I have a feeling that many of the pieces can be restored.”

Mr. Zwirner said that he had “prepared diligently” and had moved much of his art to his warehouse in Queens, which he said was untouched.