This break is attributed to cold weather. However, 30 inch mains generally are far less susceptible to weather related problems than smaller lines... and there was the Cleveland Break earlier in January. I am also attaching a story about two waterline breaks in CT which are likewise attributed to cold weather.

Water Line Break Ousts 5 Families By David S. Fallis Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 31, 2000; Page B01

A torrent of icy water roared through a College Park neighborhood yesterday after a 30-inch water line ruptured, forcing five families from their homes, twisting one of the houses on its foundation and prompting residents to cobble makeshift dams from garbage bags and lumber.

The flooding closed and crumbled parts of a two-mile strip of Rhode Island Avenue, and officials of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said it likely will take at least two days to repair. As a winter storm begin to dump sleet onto the city, authorities went door to door inspecting as many as 50 homes, offering residents shelter and telling five families to leave because their houses needed repairs or were no longer safe.

Emergency officials said the break was reported about 6:45 a.m. and apparently occurred in a 30-inch cast-iron pipe, a distributor line for fresh water serving mostly commercial businesses, under Rhode Island Avenue near Edgewood Road. They attributed the break to the freezing ground temperatures. The Rhode Island roadbed buckled and sank as thousands of gallons of water a minute spewed from below.

It took work crews about six hours to shut off water to the area near the break. "You can't just shut it off like you slam a door," said Richard Conti, College Park city manager.

"You have to turn the valves down slowly. Otherwise, it creates excessive water pressure in other parts."

"I had a whole different agenda for today," shouted Richard Schefer, who, with neighbors' help, pulled clothes and other belongings from his home on Kenesaw Street near Rhode Island and carted them to a dry residence on higher ground. "Now they are telling me I can't go back into my house."

Schefer said he awoke about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, went to a convenience store, bought a newspaper, returned home and brewed coffee.

He said some time later he was in his kitchen when he heard a loud noise, like rushing wind. "Looking out my window, it was indescribable."

Surging water pounded the west side of his wood-frame home, washing away earth as it swept around the foundation and under his porch. Schefer went outside and attempted to build a dam using lumber from the lot next door, but soon realized it was hopeless. Inside, "the walls moved . . . one wall cracked," he said.

About 6:45 a.m., firefighter Steve Wiseman, who was on his way home from his station, discovered the break, officials said. "He started knocking on doors, alerting people to what was going on, waking them up," said Mark Brady, spokesman for Prince George's County fire and rescue.

Water was knee-deep in some areas, rushing downhill east into the neighborhood, between homes and into basements along Kenesaw and nearby streets.

Street crews, which were out awaiting the next round of wintry precipitation, rolled snow removal trucks into the area, using plows to divert water from sloping driveways-turned-water flumes.

"My wife looked outside about 7 a.m." to check on the weather, said Greg Hofinger, who also lives on Kenesaw. "She said, 'It must be doing something. The street is brown.' "

Hofinger said he found about three feet of muddy water sloshing against the basement door in an outside stairwell. Water seeped in, soaking the rug and washing out plans to watch the Superbowl with friends.

"I had some people coming over, but I guess that won't happen now," he said, gesturing to the soggy mess in the basement where a TV sat.

Schefer's home, which took a direct hit of rushing water, was condemned because it shifted slightly on its foundation.

Fire officials asked residents to leave four other homes until repairs could be made, Brady said. The families were offered motel rooms courtesy of the WSSC, Brady said, but most sought shelter with friends or relatives. Other residents, given the option of shelter, by and large, decided to stay and man basement pumps. By late afternoon, most of the neighborhood, except for the five houses that were evacuated, still had electricity and gas service.

"If they shut off the power, the sump pump will be off," Hofinger said, shaking his head. "I saw a Pepco truck down the street, and I went and stood in front of the pole."

Officials said water service may be disrupted for some residents, but did not know how many or how long. "We still have to get down to the pipe and see the extent of the damage," said Vance Livingston, WSSC systems maintenance supervisor. By evening, WSSC officials were still pumping water from around the broken pipe and had not reached it, he said.

Livingston said the WSSC had responded to "an extensive" number of water line breaks in Prince George's and Montgomery counties over the weekend.

He had no details on the other breaks, but said none compared to the size of the one under Rhode Island.

As water continued to flow down Kenesaw Street, Jerry Schrider used a snow shovel to pack dirt, sand and rock onto a dam constructed of trash bags, wood and Plexiglas across his mother-in-law's driveway. "Civil defense is going to get a phone call from me," Shrider said, soaked from manning the driveway for hours. Calls to officials for sandbags went unanswered, he said.

Brady said sandbags are not stockpiled because they are not needed on a regular basis. "We did the best we could with what we had at hand."

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/feed/a52554-2000jan31.htm

Water Mains Burst; Students Sent Home Early About 2,560 Customers Either Lose Water Service Temporarily Or Have Very Low Water Pressure When Two Mains Rupture In Different Parts Of Town.

Source: The Hartford Courant Publication date: Jan 29, 2000

&Two water mains burst Friday, forcing three schools to close early and leaving hundreds of residents temporarily without water.

The Hazardville Water Co. started receiving reports of the first problem about 8:30 a.m.

"All of a sudden the phones started ringing like crazy," said Bryon Mead, an analyst with the company.

Workers used a computer monitoring system to confirm that water pressure was low. They checked the company's pumping stations, but found no problems.

"Then we realized there was a large main break somewhere," Mead said.

Although such incidents are usually easy to find, often sending water streaming onto roads, no one reported seeing gushing water. The company contacted the Enfield police and fire departments to help find the break.

It was eventually found at the end of Kelly Drive, a cul-de-sac off Simon Road in the south part of town.

Mead said a cap on an 8-inch main had burst, sending torrents of water into a wooded area and down a ravine near the Scantic River, making the break difficult to find.

The valve to the street was shut off and water pressure was restored to most residents in the area. But earlier in the day, school officials decided to end classes early at three schools because water company officials had not been able to tell them when service would be restored.

Mead said up to 2,500 of Hazardville Water Co.'s 6,700 customers were temporarily without water or had very low pressure.

Students at John F. Kennedy Middle School were sent home about 11 a.m., followed by students at E.H. Parkman and H.B. Stowe elementary schools at 11:30 a.m. Without water, food could not be prepared and students could not flush toilets or wash their hands.

"It was a sanitary and safety decision," School Superintendent John Gallacher said. School staff members began contacting parents at 9:30 a.m., and many came to school to pick up their children. Buses took the remaining students home.

About 30 middle school students and two elementary students whose parents could not be contacted and did not have keys to their homes were taken to Enfield High School until arrangements could be made, Gallacher said.

The second problem was reported to the Connecticut Water Co. between 11 and 11:30 a.m. Company workers soon found the problem on Carmela Terrace off Ganny Terrace in Thompsonville. A company spokesman said the leak was isolated, and water service was expected to be restored to about 60 customers by early evening.

Publication date: Jan 29, 2000

) 1999, NewsReal, Inc.

http://beta.newsreal.com/cgi-bin/NewsService?osform_template=pages/newsrealStory&ID=newsreal&storypath=News/Story_2000_02_01.NRdb@2@20@3@265&path=News/Category.NRdb@2@16@2@2

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000

Answers

Just further implications of the apparently beginning stages of the slow erosion of the country's infrastructure. I presume there will (unfortunately) be more and more of these "unexplainable" mishaps as the weeks and months go by. But unless they begin to affect the essentials of life on a grand scale, I doubt the mass-consciousness will relate them to technology glitches. I think this will not occur until the spring and summer months, but get progressively worse up till then. The temperatures on the East Coast for Sunday, January 30th were not that cold (around freezing) compared to earlier weeks. The Connecticut bursts occured on Friday, January 28th with no mention of any reasons, including cold-induced. Seems like a lot of different kinds of pipe-flow problems are pressure/ valve related. It's kind of eery to hear of these things happening, increasing in scope and intensity, when they could very well be directly related to date glitches. The sense now is that things will start happening with more and more frequency and are in fact escalating daily. I believe this to be the case.

-- Patrick Lastella (Lastella1@aol.com), February 01, 2000.

The pressure in city water mains varies between 40, and 80 psi. It is contunually monitored, and recorded, by recording guages, that are not high tech. Any spike in pressure would be obvious, on the recording chart, and thus impossible to cover up. It`s the same technology, that was in use 50 years ago.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), February 01, 2000.

---yes, but which of these corporate/public monopoly/governmental orgs is releasing any data on past and present pressures, both for all these water leaks, sewerage leaks, ands pipeline ruptures? We have no way of determing what is "normal" besides the vague assertions that yes indeed things break, and oh yes it is-isn't weather related. there's no oversite, and no way to force the issue into the light of day besides long and costly court cases, anonymous posts from concerned insiders in these orgs, or the worst data, self -reporting by orgs, who almost all have a fairly dismal record of revealing anything "embarrasing" or that contrdicts the "business as usual" spin we here. Oh ya, forgot about corporate economic "secrecy" and "national security", those are always cute. Sure, here's the records--and you get handed after months of asking a piece of paper that's been all but obliterated by magic marker blackout.

For me, I remain suspicious of the huge number of glitches occuring, way too time-line coincidental with the projections of the technologists who analysed this probable outcome. Again, for me, it just remains to be seen if the trends continue, the glitch graph keeps rising on a per day basis, not in numbers in a linear fashion, in numbers in an exponential fashion. As soon as we apparently rose above statisitical norms, it got suspicious and probable, and it appears to be increasing steadily, right on time. Trends,if they continue,appear to indicate mid march and beyond as the break even point where these problems cannot be ignored by the media nationally, without extraordinary spin and control. Guess we'll see. If true, TPTB will be forced to divert attention to an external over riding "threat", such as a new war, or something of that nature.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 01, 2000.

Hi Earl, I wonder where you got your information concerning water pressure monitoring. Could you provide a link or data. What you are saying may be true about some small municipal water systems, but I would be very interested in seeing some proof that a water system as large as Washington DCs isn't monitored by computers....

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000.

Carl, I was a fireman in San Francisco for 25 years. The article mentioned a cast iron main. That would make it at least 80 years old, which means it could have been very corroded. Newer mains are mild steel. Pressure surges do occour, for various reasons, But they are nothing new, and are recorded, in permanent records. Mabey the system that adds the chlorine is computer controlled, but the pressure pumps are very much the same as were used years ago. When new sections of main are replaced, they are pressure tested to 250psi. Normal pressure would be 100 at the very most.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), February 01, 2000.

This is a repeat of the post yesterday. Here is a repeat of my reply. WSSC (Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission) provides water to a Montgomery County and Prince Georges County in MD. I don't know what's wrong with their water pipes, but they've been breaking/bursting for over 10 years. I'd estimate 5-6 water main breaks a year, maybe more, in any and all types of weather including sunny days in the summer. Don't count this as Y2K related. BTW I live in Northern VA and water main breaks occur much less often here.

-- slza (slzattas@erols.com), February 01, 2000.

Bottom line: Old cities have old water systems, some sections dating to the 19th century. The mains rust out, and break, at which time, they are fixed. Digging the entire system up at once and replacing it is unfeasable.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), February 01, 2000.

You guys may be right. However, I don't trust official explanations on anything like this right now. And wouldn't it be interesting to see the pressure logs for the period of the water main blowouts for the various locales?

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000.