PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A water main break in North Philadelphia on Friday morning caused a sinkhole to open up and partially swallow a car. Several homes were also flooded.
It was around 9 a.m. when a 30-inch main ruptured on 9th Street, between Berks Street and Montgomery Avenue near Temple University’s campus.
Half of a Honda SUV that was parked on the block ended up inside a sinkhole. Byrd, a tow-truck driver, said it took about two hours to pull the SUV out.
“So when I got here, it was a white Honda and a sinkhole and all this water going down the hill going from Montgomery to Berks. A bunch of cars flooded,” Byrd said.
Nonprofit Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha is located on the northwest corner of 9th and Berks streets, and sustained damage from the flooding.
Jody Robinson, their maintenance director, said most of their first floor was flooded.
“The water rushed down, and for some reason it pooled right here, and we kind of flooded in here and got a lot of water damage.”
Crews went door-to-door assessing damage inside homes.
Several blocks, including 9th and Berks, are still blocked off as crews work to clean up the mess.