Cast Iron Calamity

“I was [on] Durant Street and saw water flooding the whole intersection near 35th and Durant,” said Noah Gates about a broken water main incident in Mountain View on Wednesday, December 9. “The water came from in front of the church.”

According to pastor Brian Clater of the Mount Olive Baptist Church, “About 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rudie Jones and a couple of others noticed cracks in the street. There was a bubbling of water in three areas right near our street corner. It bubbled and turned into a gushing flood pretty quickly. I called the San Diego Water Department.”

The water flooded nearby homes and caused property damage. It took crews from the SDWD less than three hours to end the flooding, but over two million gallons of water had caused damage from 35th Street toward Imperial Avenue, according to SDWD sources.

The cast-iron pipeline is over 50 years old and a valve failed. The city provided residents with a water truck. The broken pipe left over 15 homes without water until about noon Wednesday.

“What has been left is a big hole in front of our yard,” said Pastor Clater. “I heard that the crews plan to provide a patch so that the road can be reopened today. Then they will have a permanent fix by the weekend.”