PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Crews responded to more water main breaks Monday in Manayunk and the city's Overbrook Park neighborhood, where freezing temperatures turned streets and sidewalks into icy hazards.
Water started pouring out in Overbrook Park near City Avenue early Monday, and it was an icy mess.
Brian Holt lives on Greenhill Road near Haverford Avenue. He got up and saw there was water gushing out, pouring down the street, just making matters worse.
"The roads haven't been pretty good since the cleanup, so this is just causing more to it. More headache as you can see the traffic. When I came out of my house this morning to go to work, I didn't know what was going on until my neighbors and they explained it to me," he said.
Water department crews eventually responded and tried to clear the snow, slush and ice from the storm drains. It was a challenge because of the cold, and a lot of water bypassed the drains and kept streaming down Haverford Avenue all the way to City Avenue. The roads and sidewalks got slick fast.
The icy conditions led to a single-vehicle crash early Monday, when an SUV spun out on City Avenue. The driver was injured and taken to a hospital, officials said.
Later Monday, around 2 p.m., water was gushing down Seville Street, between Terrace and Cresson streets, in Manayunk.
A Philadelphia Water Department spokesperson said officials are looking into it and they don't know currently whether it was a water main or a service pipe leading to a property that broke.
PWD crews were on scene while water was flowing down the street. The spokesperson said if the leak was on a private pipe and shut off by a plumber, it wouldn't be under PWD's purview.
Seville Street resident Spencer Powell was out trying to chip away at ice that had formed on the sidewalk after the break.
"It's not fun having to go without showers. We have a toddler, and she needs a bath. So it's tough," he said.
Powell said he feels like he's seen a water main break on his block about every year, and they usually get service back within a couple of days.
It's been a tough winter for the water department, culminating in a handful of water main breaks just in the last few days. The PWD spokesperson said there have been some five dozen water main repairs since Jan. 19, and almost 100 residences have received notice they need to hire a plumber. No word yet on how many properties were affected by this leak.
Sunday alone, crews responded to Manayunk, Roxborough, Northeast Philadelphia and Point Breeze.
