Water main break floods street in Chicago suburb

Water main break floods streets in Dixmoor

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A broken water main flooded an entire block Monday morning in south suburban Dixmoor.

Police discovered the water main break around 3 a.m. near 144th and Paulina.

The area has been blocked off as crews work to fix the leak. 

People living on the street couldn't get out of their driveways, and had problems starting their day.

"It was definitely a rough morning, because I've got three little ones. They had to go to school, and we barely had any water to brush their teeth," Dion Moore said.

Village officials said a salt crew will be treating the street to prevent it from icing over.

It's unclear how long repairs to the broken main will take. Dixmoor has had a problem with frequent water main breaks in recent years.

"When the weather get like this, either it's too hot or too cold, the pipes pop. So that's pretty much what's going on here. The infrastructure, again, is very old," Dixmoor Village Manager Fitzgerald Roberts said. "We're going to get it taken care of. Bear with us."

Last July, the state announced $14 million in funding for Dixmoor to overhaul its water system, including repairs to water mains and work to replace lead service lines.

In June, Dixmoor also secured $2.2 million in federal funding to replace old pipes.

Fitzgerald said the money dedicated to repairs is not enough to fix all of the village's water issues.

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