This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Residents and a school on Saturday began cleaning the mess left from a Friday night water main break on Foothill Drive in Salt Lake City.
The 32-inch pipe broke at 1700 S. Foothill Drive Friday night, sending 2.5 million of gallons of water roaring westward down 1700 South. Thirty-four homes and the nearby Montessori Community School reported damage from the gushing water, according to a Salt Lake City Fire Department news release.
The flooding displaced the residents of four homes, who have made arrangements to stay with family and friends, according to the release.
"It swirled around here and filled the front yard," said Deborah McDermott, 61, surveying the muddy front of her house about half a block downhill from where the pipe ruptured. After the rushing water pooled in her yard, it went down the side of her house.
After walking downstairs, she described how she saw the water pouring through a basement window. Fortunately, the two to three inches that got in didn't damage anything that she wasn't thinking of getting rid of anyway, like the carpet and some old books.
Andrea Brunelle, who lives uphill from McDermott, thought the water was rain. But when she went outside to look, she got nervous seeing the growing water inch closer to her home. It came close, but began to recede before it could do any damage to her house.
Her front yard, though, was not so lucky. Brunelle, 43, had just xeriscaped it over the summer. But the flood water washed much of that work away, and damaged the sprinkler system.
Still, "it could have been much worse," she said.
Most of the Montessori school's classrooms and the library were flooded with at least two inches of water. The flooding was categorized as a "category 3," meaning that there is black water with silt and contaminates, but no sewage, according to a post on the school's Facebook page. School officials decided to cancel classes on Monday, and are looking into alternative spaces to hold classes until all of the repairs are finished.
"As of now, the best guess for that time frame is three weeks," according to the post. "However, there are a lot of unknowns so that is just a guess right now."
Officials are fairly confident that they can resume school Tuesday and are "working to set up a temporary space for the Magnolias class to meet and are considering an off-campus curriculum for the Elementary and Middle School classes for several days upon the students return," the post adds.
Investigators have yet to determine why the pipe broke. The pipe broke about 8:45 p.m. Water was shut off within an hour, though the pipe kept draining throughout the night.
"The river kept going and flushed everyone down the street," said Nate Cahoon, 23, who lives just west of the Montesorri Community School. He feels lucky that his home was spared, though a friend's car that was parked out front won't start, apparently from the deluge that swept under and around it Friday night. "I've never seen anything like it."
A portion of Foothill Drive washed away as well. The intersection remains closed while public utility crews repair the pipe and the damaged portion of the road. The city utilities department expected repairs to take at least the weekend to complete.
In the immediate wake of the break, 35 firefighters responded and laid several large hoses along 1700 South to divert the water. Since then, cleanup crews have been called in to help the affected homeowners.
No injuries were reported.
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