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Water line breaks, damages two houses

January 14th, 2010 Posted in Opinion

By Safiyyah Ballard

LOGAN–Two homes were damaged last night at 100 West and 400 North when the basements were flooded with culinary water.

“A capped, 8-inch water line break moved the thrust block and blew the cap off,” said Mike Roundy, Logan public works department manager. Roundy said the cleanup should be fairly easy. Only one of the homes was occupied and the occupants were moved to temporary lodging by the Cache County Red Cross.

Logan City safety officer Brody Parker said the occupants were moved for safety reasons. “With the weather, moving the occupants to a place with water, electricity and heat was a priority. The restoration will take some time and moving them was necessary,“ Parker said. The residents lived upstairs and the damage was to the basement.

USU alumnus Riley Tervort lives next door to the occupied house that was damaged and allowed ARS to transfer the evacuated occupants’ personal belongings to his basement. Tervort said he and his roommate heard the water flooding the neighboring yard.

“It was flowing pretty steady at first and then it just started rushing and pouring into the side of the yard and basement,” he said. “It looked like something from a movie.

“You could only see the top of the dryer in the basement. All of their pictures, family memorabilia, and dishes were just floating in water. It was sad. They’re really nice people. I’m right next door and nothing happened to my place,” he said.

“The giant sinkhole wasn’t there until they shut off the water valve,” Tervort added. “Within 5 minutes, it created a drain and the water just started rushing towards the hole. The concrete and asphalt just started to drop and you could see the water just bubbling and recirculating. It was creepy.”

Dan Newmyer, estimator of ARS Disaster Response Unit, said the homeowners called to have the basement cleaned. “There was about three feet of water and mud in the basement in the (occupied) house. The restoration will be different for each house,” said Newmyer.

Newmyer projects the restoration to take a few weeks for the unoccupied house and days for the occupied house.

NW

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