Last Thursday, a water main dating from 1959 burst on E. Houston St. leaving an enormous sinkhole in front of Katz’s Deli. Katz’s basement and several others were flooded, ruining food and merchandise. A grocery store had four inches of mud in its basement. Despite it all, Katz’s and most other merchants stayed open through the deluge and subsequent repairs. Clockwise from above left, fixing the street after the water-main break and sinkhole; Katz’s Jake Dell, left, at the scene with members of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management; mopping up in Katz’s pop-up space.
