Residents cleaning up after water main break on Laxdal Road

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This article was published 30/12/2013 (4611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents in the Charleswood area are still cleaning up the mess this morning after a series of water main breaks Sunday evening.

The largest occurred about 5:30 p.m. on Laxdal Road, and water quickly spread water from Brittany Drive to Ridgewood Avenue.

Mildred Gogush, a senior who lives on Laxdal Road is hoping someone can come and help her clean the ice in her garage and on her driveway.

“I don’t know how I’m going to go out and do anything today with all of that ice,” Gogush said.

She asked the city to help her with her driveway but they told her that the truck used for sanding might damage it. So, she was told that she can do it herself and send them the bill.

Her son has been helping her with some of the cleanup but there’s a lot of work to be done.

Down the street, water was ankle deep on Gordon Ross’s driveway.

Ross, 77, who also lives on Laxdal, was visiting a neighbour with his wife when he heard about the break. He said he couldn’t even walk home because all he was wearing were running shoes.

“One of the firefighters had to come and bring me my boots,” Ross said. “The water still seeped into my boots because there was about a foot of it on our driveway. We’ve had water main breaks before but nothing like this.”

The water froze the brakes on one of their cars and they had to call a tow truck to move it, while the city cleaned the streets. The Christmas decorations in their yard were also flooded.

Ross said he’s not too bothered about it.

“We’ll be all right,” he said.

Water crews shut down the water main to regain control of the situation, while the public works department sanded the icy street.

Some Charleswood residents then reported seeing brown water spouting from their taps, likely a result of sediment build-up disturbed when the city re-started the water-main system.

Neither Gogush nor Ross have running water in the house; theirs are two of 16 homes without water at the moment.

The city is currently on Laxdal Road repairing the break, and if all goes well they should be done by the end of the day.

There were no evacuations from the area.