A video posted on X earlier this week shows a Detroit neighborhood that has been completely flooded by a major water main break. To make matters worse, the feet of water that had reached the grilles on many parked cars had frozen, locking in place dozens of vehicles. What we can’t see in the video but was later reported by the Associated Press is that 400 homes were in the flood zone. Some 190 homes had flooded basements, another 174 were without heat, and 72 had no power.
When Infrastructure Fails
The water main break happened around 2 a.m. on Monday morning in a working-class neighborhood located southwest of downtown Detroit. The source was a nearly 100-year-old steel water main that was 54 inches in diameter. The AP reports an ever-widening crater formed where the water was rushing out, and 90 people had to be rescued from their homes.
Fortunately, the city was able to locate the source of the break and turn off the water flow quickly enough that the flooding had receded by noon that day. The repair will require a new 12-foot section of pipe, though water flow won’t be restored for another two weeks. Unfortunately, cars that were in water up to their grilles were still stuck frozen in place days after the flooding receded, their wheels frozen in place by ice that refused to melt.
For its part, the city of Detroit appears to be taking good care of the citizens who were affected. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Water Authority offered to pay for hotel rooms and food for anyone unable to return to their homes. The AP reports the city is also offering to pay for uninsured damage to hot water heaters and furnaces, as well as clean out basements.
The social media post that brought mass awareness to the water main break was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Five days after it initially went live, the post has garnered over 7,300 comments and some 148,000 Likes. The original poster, @BGatesIsaPyscho, has over 876,000 followers and describes itself as a, “Shared account by a group concerned about the current State & trajectory of The World.”
Read the full article here
