12-INCH WATER PIPE BURSTS, CAUSING A HUGE SINKHOLE THAT SWALLOWED A CAR IN MARYLAND
January 27, 2015
BLADENSBURG, Md. – A Maryland neighborhood will be cleaning
up for a while after a water main broke Tuesday morning, leading to a huge
sinkhole that swallowed a silver Honda Accord.
“It’s a pretty dramatic site,” says Jerry Irvine with
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
The 12-inch pipe was 90-years old. It gave way about 3:30
a.m.
“All that pressure running through this old pipe caused it
to burst,” Irvine says. “A number of families here have had their homes
flooded.”
One of those families went through a terrifying ordeal.
A mother, father and their three children were inside the
Honda Accord as the street around it began sinking.
Luz Martinez, a neighbor, tells WTOP the family felt the car
moving, and they struggled and scrambled to leave.
The family made it out before the sinkhole completely opened
up.
“That’s a blessing,” says Bladensburg Mayor Walter James.
“You can always replace the material things, but human life is what’s
important.”
The family’s car eventually became completely submerged in
the large, muddy sinkhole, and a second car was caught on the edge of the
collapsed ground.
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is working with
homeowners who sustained damage. Residents of five homes evacuated because of the
flooding.
WSSC says that 77 customers were without water because of
the break. Crews needed four hours just to shut off the water before they could
begin replacing 15 feet worth of pipe.
Service was restored as of 1:30 p.m., according to WSSC.
However Edmonston Road between Decatur Street and Chesapeake Road will remain
closed until road repairs are completed.
In December, WSSC repaired 600 water main breaks plus
another 374 breaks and leaking pipes so far this month.
Irvine says the Edmonston Road break is an example why the
water utility is aggressively replacing aging pipes within its system.
“We have a lot of old, aging infrastructure,” he says.