The latest in a series of large water main breaks around the country since rollover.

Fire Chief: "It's the worst [water main break] I've ever seen."

Tough Break Water Main Break Floods Carrick Neighborhood

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Publication date: Dec 21, 1999

For more than a minute, Russell Roscoe was trapped under a car in front his Carrick house, pinned by the raging river once known as Poplargrove Street.

Roscoe attempted to jump a six-footwide channel of water to talk to a city inspector who had responded to a water main break at Concordia and Poplargrove streets yesterday afternoon. Roscoe was unable to clear it and was sucked into the channel and dragged for about 10 feet down the steep street until he became wedged under the rear wheels of a car.

"I didn't think the water was that powerful," Russell said wearily while sitting in his cold, dark house with a basement flooded in six feet of water. "And it was."

Roscoe was rescued by his brother, who grabbed him by the neck and held his head above water until firefighters were able to pull him out from under the tires. He didn't go to the hospital.

Pennsylvania-American Water Co. spokesman Philip Cynar said a 20- inch main broke around 2 p.m., affecting up to 45 homes in the neighborhood, most of them on Poplargrove. Workers were not able to shut the water main off for at least four hours because of the terrain.

"It's a tough main to get to. It's a tough main to shut off," Cynar said.

While workers tried, the water streaming from the broken main spilled into at least 30 homes and flooded busy Becks Run Road, which had to be closed for a time. Two people were injured in the flooding and many of the homes had as much as six feet of water in the basements.

Electrical and gas service to the neighborhood also was shut off as a precaution, and service won't be restored to some of the homes until the water has been pumped out.

Dave Radanovich, spokesman for Columbia Gas Co., said service was cut off to more than 20 homes. Workers had to clear the water out first because it puts out pilot lights and there's a risk that gas could build up and ignite. He expected gas service could begin to be restored this morning.

"It was like a river," said Fourth District Battalion Fire Chief Rick Becker, who was on the scene to help pump water out of basements. "It's the worst [water main break] I've ever seen."

Deborah Huff was in stable condition at UPMC South Side after suffering a compound ankle fracture while trying to get out of her house as it was filling with water.

The main that broke was right in front of her house on Concordia. Huff first telephoned her neighbor, Jody Irwin, and asked her to send help.

"She was screaming `Tell [your husband] to come over and get me,' " Irwin said.

Irwin said Huff first handed her 2-year-old son to a neighbor before trying to walk out of her house but, as she stepped into the rushing water, its force knocked her over. Several firefighters came to her rescue. "The water just took her," Irwin said.

Irwin's husband, Mike, first helped firefighters rescue Huff, and then he went to get the Huff family's dog, Flash, a Collie-mix who was tied up in the yard.

Yesterday evening, Flash was barking vigorously at the army of firefighters pumping water from basements and utility crews digging craters in streets and yards.

Children splashed happily in new waterways and peered into deep crevasses which revealed the mysteries of domestic plumbing, while grown-ups were wandering the streets, desperately looking for workers who could help them get water out of their homes.

The basement of Bob and Claire Meixner's home on Poplargrove was under four feet of water, with the contents of a downstairs freezer floating in the mess.

Cigarettes helped Skip Westphal weather the storm. He left his house to buy some and returned around 5 p.m. to find he could no longer park in front of his house. A fire truck was there instead.

"I'm one of the luckier ones," he said, mourning the loss of some Christmas decorations and clothes that were soaked in about a foot- and-a-half of water.

About five hours after the main first burst and pulled Russell Roscoe under, he and his wife, Tina, were sitting in their candle- lit living room, wet and waiting for workers to come to pump water from the basement.

Tina Roscoe hung up the telephone after her homeowner's insurance company that told her they wouldn't be covered for the damage. Shortly after, a worker came to the door to tell them the pumps wouldn't make it up to her house last night but would try to make it today.

The Roscoes had enough.

"We going to get out of here to go somewhere warm," she said.

Publication date: Dec 21, 1999 ) 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

Link

http://beta.newsreal.com/cgi-bin/NewsService?osform_template=pages/newsrealStory&ID=newsreal&storypath=News/Story_2000_02_10.NRdb@2@13@3@318&path=News/Category.NRdb@2@16

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 10, 2000

Answers

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT????? This is from DECEMBER 1999!!!!

Carl, TRY to keep your stuff CURRENT (that would mean the year has to end in ZERO ZERO). You are going to give this place a bad name.

Ignac

-- Ignac LeSoit, Pilot (warhammer@Pride.of.Mandeyne), February 10, 2000.

Carl,

This is almost two months old!

Why do you persist in garbaging this board up with these nonsense posts?

-- sal (haveit@your.way), February 10, 2000.

The Jenkins 2000 Autoposter is not a person, just a machine that automatically posts news stories regardless of the relevance to Y2K.

The fact that it is posting stories from December of 1999 may just be a Y2K glitch, or an embedded potato chip.

-- CJS (cjs@noemail.com), February 10, 2000.

Hey gusy,

I'm sure this was just an honest mistake. Carl does a good job. Everybody makes mistakes, that's why we have erasers on pencils. =)

When you do a lot of topical research, it's easy to miss a date or make an error. My eyes go buggy after hours of research and I end up looking like this --> ( @ - @ ) LOL

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 10, 2000.

See...there ya have it...'gusy'...I mean guys.... =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 10, 2000.

maybe it is a y2k glitch on the "autoposter" machine?

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), February 11, 2000.