DETROIT (WXYZ) — Mary Sanchez’s home security camera captured the moment her street became a stream.
“This is my first time looking at it. It’s just scary. I didn’t realize how fast it was coming up,” Sanchez said.
It happened moments after that 54-inch water main broke early Monday morning---impacting hundreds of homes, baptizing cars, and flooding basements.
CHOPPER VIDEO: Repairs continue on massive water main break in SW Detroit
“This is how high the water was here, but inside, you go inside, the water goes this high,” Sanchez said while gesturing toward her chest. “And if you see there’s ice, all this is ice an inch of ice or two, and I can’t take anything out because everything is frozen to the floor.”
The first city-contracted cleaning crew is making its way through four flood-impacted homes to clean and sanitize basements. More will be in the neighborhood next week.
All in all, those contracted crews will tackle about 400 homes over the course of six weeks. About 170 households are sheltering in hotels.
“Getting the families back here, making sure they’re here for the contractors to get in their home, that’s our number one priority,” said Detroit Water and Sewerage spokesman Bryan Peckinpaugh. “And those families first will get the services of the cleaning and repair services so we can get them back into the neighborhood.”
Great Lake Water Authority crews are inching forward in their efforts to repair the broken water main. A 12-foot section of replacement pipe is on-site but had not been installed as of Friday evening.
Peckinpaugh says crews are still inspecting the transmission line to ensure it’s entirely intact before adding the 12-foot span of pipe. They will also have to conduct bacterial tests before the water main is brought back to service. The timeline for the entire fix is roughly two weeks.
Detroit’s Department of Public Works assisted police in towing vehicles from Rowan Street to aid crews as they repair a smaller, six-inch water main break there. One of those vehicles belongs to Manuel Cuevas.
“Like I said, it wasn’t anywhere we could go. My van was dead it was in four feet of water. My car was dead it was in four feet of water, so yeah, I’m stuck like Chuck,” Cuevas said.
City inspectors have been in nearly 200 flood-impacted homes and businesses so far - assessing damage ahead of the recovery process. The City and Great Lakes Water Authority are vowing to cover the cost of uninsured damages.
“Basically, everything in the basement is gone: hot water tanks, boilers, electrical panel. They did some inspection on the foundation, but they didn’t say much yet,” Jaime Carrillo, owner of Detroit’s BFMI Dance Studio, said.
The City is urging impacted residents to fill out a liability waiver and notice of claim form in order to have damaged property repaired or replaced.
The notice of claim form can be found here:
https://detroitmi.gov/departments/water-and-sewerage-department/dwsd-customer-service/dwsd-damage-claims-sewage-backups
