Filthy flood topples straphanger in Qns. station

A city straphanger got swept off his feet by gushing water in a subway station Wednesday night — and narrowly escaped falling into the path of an oncoming train.

The deluge of brown water erupted in the Court Square-23rd St. station in Long Island City at 8:30 p.m., taking down a construction wall as well as the unlucky passenger.

The flooding was caused by pelting rain as thunderstorms rolled through the city and was exacerbated by an open skyscraper construction site adjacent to the station, a source told the Daily News.

A video shared online by Rick McGuire, better known as SubwayCreatures, shows a man knocked off his feet as the torrent tumbles out from behind a temporary construction wall. He rolls in the gushing muck, getting to his knees just in time to avoid getting pushed right off the platform edge into a train.

The person who shot the video told McGuire they wished to remain anonymous, but said the flood happened during Wednesday’s downpour.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials blamed the contractor and developer for the skyscraper, dubbed Skyline Tower, for not doing enough to prevent the flooding. The subcontractor, John Civetta and Sons, was doing work at the site when it was filled with water, according to signs on the walls.

The contractor was relocating utilities and “did not have the proper pumping system in place to act as a temporary drainage system,” said MTA spokesman Shams Tarek. “Their work site was inundated with rainwater during severe thunderstorms, causing water to build up at their work site and breach plywood separating their work site from the station.”

MTA officials met with the contractor to ensure measures were taken so the flooding would not happen again, Tarek said.

No injuries or delays in service were reported in connection with the deluge, according to Tarek.

Riders passing through the Court Square stop on Thursday were confounded by the amount of water in the station when they watched video of the tsunami the night before.

Mike Bao, 34, works in Long Island City and said he takes the train three to four times a day. “If that guy went any further he would have fallen into the tracks and been hit by that train,” he said. “It was especially dangerous.

Even though the gush of water is being attributed to the construction, commuter Luisa Díaz, 56, blamed the MTA.

“They need to do a better job of keeping the subway clean and maintained so that water can flow safely and not flood. I would be so afraid if that was me (on the video),” said Díaz.

“There needs to be more protection,” added Kevin McNeal, 61, who rides the subway daily. “We need to do more for the safety of our citizens.”

MTA crews over the past two years cleared out roughly 10,000 clogged drains across the subway system, which has helped keep water flowing out of the flood-prone tunnels.