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Heavy rains in Manhattan breach Apple's flagship Fifth Ave store

A deluge of rain in New York City made its way into the glass cube atop Apple's Fifth Avenue store on Wednesday, leaving employees scrambling to mop up the mess.


Workers clean up Apple's Fifth Ave Store Wednesday morning. Photo by Errol Rappaport, via New York Post.

The flagship store, which is open 24 hours a day, was flooded as of around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, a customer told the New York Post. The incident reportedly started with a slow leak before water suddenly began pouring into the store.

"Everyone started scrambling, moving tables," Errol Rappaport told the Post. "It didn't look like there were any electrical issues, otherwise they would have evacuated the store."

At the time there were said to be about 15 customers in the store. Employees reportedly hurried to remove the water that was on the floor, but no products appeared to have been damaged.

Most of the water had been mopped up a few hours later, and the store remained open the entire time.

Wednesday's report cited unnamed workers who blamed the incident on a "drainage problem" stemming from construction done at the Fifth Avenue location in 2011. In a $6.7 million effort, Apple simplified the 32-foot glass cube that serves as the entrance to the store, reducing it from 90 panes of glass to just 15 larger, seamless pieces.

Customers enter the cube before taking a staircase down below, to where the 24-hour store is located. The cube, which is one of the most photographed landmarks in New York City, was designed and even paid for by late company co-founder Steve Jobs.

Heavy rains were seen throughout New York's five boroughs Wednesday morning, with localized street and highway flooding in some areas, according to WNBC 4 New York.

The entrance to Apple's Fifth Ave Store was covered with sandbags last October in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. There was no indication that any damage or major leaks occurred when the superstorm hit.