Water Main Break Shuts Down Main Street In Ellicott City
BALTIMORE (WJZ) - A water main break has shut down Main Street in Ellicott City Wednesday morning, also causing a massive sinkhole to form.
Crews are still working, and Main St. is shut down between Rogers Ave. and Belfont Dr.
The water has been shut off, but a lot of damage was already done.
A car was swallowed up and some homes were flooded, bringing back memories of that terrible flooding last July.
Crews responded at about 5 a.m., and quickly knew the break was taking a turn for the worse.
"When the water main breaks, it picks up the asphalt like a blanket and filled in underneath and finally failed, so there's a lot of street damage," said Steve Gerwin, director of Wastewater Utilities for Howard County.
Crews immediately started to move cars off the street, but one still got caught.
"We had one car left to move off street, and it actually got caught in the sinkhole," Gerwin said.
It took about three hours just to get the water main shut down. It was an area where they needed to use caution because of how high the water pressure is.
But some damage was already done.
One car was swallowed up, the road was caving in and split into pieces, and at least two homes flooded out.
"Typically we get 8-10 of these water main breaks a month, so this is not unusual," Gerwin said. "What's unusual is it's Main St. and it brings us back to that terrible July evening of the flooding,"
Authorities are urging residents to avoid the area for the rest of the day, as they still have a lot of work to do.
They are hoping to have the break repaired and the roadway back open by this weekend.
Officials say the break will not impact drinking water for residents in the area.
Officials say that Main Street businesses were not effected by the water main break.
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