Flood causes parking-lot cave-in at new shopping center

PHILADELPHIA A 48-inch water main broke Saturday morning, flooding the parking lot of a newly developed North Philadelphia shopping plaza and causing an 80-by-60-foot cave-in, officials said.

Multiple stores in Bakers Centre, which cost $58 million to build on the 3400 block of Fox Street in an industrial area and onetime food desert, were closed Saturday after 13 million gallons of water gushed through.

The main broke about 4:30 a.m., and Philadelphia Water Department workers arrived to shut the pipe down by 6:20, spokesman John DiGiulio said.

Employees at the 72,000-square-foot ShopRite, which opened in August and which anchors the shopping center, were evacuated by firefighters, DiGiulio said. The extent of the damage to shops was unclear. There were no reports of injuries.

By Saturday afternoon, most of the water had receded, and crews were left cleaning the mud that remained. Water Department crews will return Sunday to continue the cleanup, DiGiulio said. He could not estimate how long cleanup and repairs would take, or how much they would cost.

The break caused an area about 80 feet by 60 feet to cave in, DiGiulio said, after the "washout" removed the asphalt and fill in the street. The crater is about 15 feet deep, he said.