Water Main Bust

So I looked out my front window last week and noticed a couple of city workers turning a pole down my street. They were walking around with it.....I laughed because they looked like they were playing ring around the rosies. A few minutes later as I took my garbage outside I found out why. My street was flooding. This picture is right next to my house on the east side. I wasn't laughing anymore. It quickly filled up the gutter, and even though it was flowing down the gutter, it wasn't fast enough because it started going over the curb and into my front yard. I tried not to panic...but I did find myself a city worker pretty quick. My house is known in the neighborhood for flooding. How sad is that? True....but sad. I was told that the water main blew when the new Catholic school across the street tested their water line.

Little geysers of water came up through every crack or weak spot in the street and flowed over towards my yard. The city workers had already turned off two lines...but had not found the line that fed into this line yet....so it was still gushing. Finally, after 15 to 20 minutes of rushing water, they found the shut off valve and got it turned offIn the meantime, the water had washed so much dirt out from under the road- it started to buckle....so they had to close it off and dig it up. They were afraid it had created a couple of sink holes and worried that a car might go into it. So the road was dug up, the pipe was replaced and then all was covered back up. Now it is still a dirt patch in the street. Eventually the city will repave it.....but I am not holding my breath.