Gowanus Is Under Water and It’s Exactly as Gross as You’re Imagining

Shortly after heavy rains passed through Brooklyn this morning water from the Gowanus Canal — that 1.8-mile river of stagnant, black mayonnaise which runs through South Brooklyn — began spilling into the streets. Much of 9th Street between the Smith Street F train stop and Second Avenue is currently under water, which is known to happen, here, after a downpour. An earlier flash flood warning issued by the National Weather Service was set to expire at 2:45 p.m., but not before some people were forced to wade through “knee-deep shit.”

The Gowanus Canal is considered to be among the country’s most polluted bodies of water having spent years as a bustling industrial waterway. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named the canal a Superfund cleanup site in 2010. Earlier this year an environmentalist named Chris Swain attempted to swim the canal but after stopping because of inclement weather, declared it “not safe to swim in there.”

This certainly isn’t the first time the canal has flooded. In 2009 the Federal Emergency Management Agency designated the areas around the canal as a flood zone and in 2012, the surrounding neighborhoods experienced flooding during Hurricane Sandy.

UPDATE: As of 6 p.m. the water near the canal on 9th Street had receded and traffic had resumed.

Predictably, once the water started pouring into the streets today, people of Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Boerum Hill, and the other surrounding neighborhoods started losing their minds, cracking wise, and posting awesome video and photos. Here are some of our favorites.

Check out these cars navigating (or at least trying to) through Brooklyn flood waters.VID: Intstagram/andres_guardia

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) July 15, 2015

“Kitchen cabinet sale” #gowanus #apocalypse #flood

A photo posted by Ashton Worthington (@ashtonography) on Jul 15, 2015 at 10:39am PDT

Our daily view☔️ Raining cats and dogs and it’s flooded in front of the studio! #Brooklyn #NYC #studiolife #studio39 #gowanus #cristinaruales #cristinarualesco #crualesco #rainraingoaway #rain #staydry #flood #flashflood

A photo posted by CRISTINA RUALES (@cristinarualesco) on Jul 15, 2015 at 10:23am PDT

#gowanus #flashflood

A photo posted by Peter Hoffmeister (@peter_hoffmeister) on Jul 15, 2015 at 9:53am PDT

#flood #fun at work #anotherdayattheoffice #goodtimes #brooklyn #gowanus #gowanuscanal

A photo posted by Bobby Henry (@keepmoving123) on Jul 15, 2015 at 8:43am PDT

In the butt hole of Brooklyn where sewage runs rampant. #BK #NYC #brooklyn #gowanus #gowanuscanal #thunder #lightening #flood #shop #smellslikeshit #inthestreets

A video posted by Bartek (@btekk) on Jul 15, 2015 at 9:05am PDT

9th St flooded again a foot of water at low tide shish. Somebody stop the rain #brooklyn #Gowanus pic.twitter.com/VlacWREvCs

— mahalia stines (@bklynmouse) July 15, 2015