The data center in Manhattan operated by the ISP Datagram remained down as of about 2pm EDT. The facility was shut down several hours after Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the New York City borough and caused its basement, which contained electrical infrastructure, to flood.

Crews continued pumping water out of the basement on Wednesday afternoon. Power to the building could not be restored until all water was removed, the company said on a status page it put up to replace its website.

The data center at 33 Whitehall St. hosts many high-traffic websites. It is a primary site of Huffington Post and of Gawker Media, owner of popular gossip sites Gawker and Gizmodo, among others.

Gawker continued posting content on back-up sites on Wednesday, while Huffington Post was back up.

The provider has been offering backup servers to New York customers out of its facility in Connecticut.

Datagram staff were waiting for Con Edison of New York (ConEd), the local utility, to give them the green light to energize the building either by generators or through the utility feeds.

“No one in the area is allowed to energize without ConEd sign-off,” an update from Datagram read. “There are countless ConEd personnel in the area, trucks on the sidewalks, and double parked in the street.”

Not only was power down, but also communications. Verizon, AT&T and Paetec lines were down at the Datagram site, leaving it and other buildings in downtown New York without voice communications.

“Voice services downtown worsening,” Datagram wrote around 1pm. “MUX Batteries are running out all over.”