Water-main break floods West Philly neighborhood

The first time Fallon Postell remembers water cascading down the 5100 block of Wyalusing Avenue in West Philadelphia was 1994. She was 11 and, still in her flannel pajamas, she followed her mother out to dry land.

In 2004, it took Fire Department boats to rescue her and her family from their flooded block.

On Sunday, Postell, now 32, awoke to find yet another deluge headed toward her door.

"All I could think was 'Oh, no. Not again,' " she said.

An early-morning water-main break sent at least 10 million gallons gushing down the block, buckling pavement and damaging about 40 homes and more than a dozen vehicles.

Water Department officials said the 36-inch cast-iron transmission main burst under the 500 block of North 52d Street just before 4:30 a.m. and quickly turned roads for several blocks into rivers.

"There was trash, rats, all sorts of stuff flowing through it," said DeCarlo Carter, who was roused by a neighbor pounding on his door. "It was like a hurricane or something."

It remains unclear what prompted the break, but department spokesman John DiGiulio suspected high demand for water over the hot weekend may have increased pressure on the 130-year-old main.

Postell, whose home lies at the bottom of a natural valley on Wyalusing, said that by the time she managed to escape, more than six feet of water had filled her basement and had begun seeping up to the first floor.

Even residents on higher ground reported ankle-deep water in their houses, and some parked cars were upended as the asphalt crumpled beneath them.

City Water Department crews had nearly stanched the flow by 7 a.m. Within half an hour, much of the water had receded, and what could be a lengthy repair process had begun.

By noon, most residents were allowed to return to their homes and water service remained functioning to most houses in the neighborhood, officials said. Still, many remained without power or gas service, prompting them to sweat out the sweltering afternoon on front steps and porches.

Tow trucks had arrived to begin removing damaged vehicles, many with silt up to their roofs. Officials from the Department of Licenses and Inspections had begun a door-by-door assessment of damaged homes.

Some residents, among them Carter, returned home to find bright orange condemnation notices on their doors.

A partly collapsed basement had forced Carter along with his wife, son, and mother from their house on North Paxon Street. The Red Cross offered to put the family up in a hotel for three days. He said he was uncertain about what will happen next.

L&I officials did not return calls seeking information on how many homes were declared uninhabitable.

"We need some assistance, and I don't even know where to turn," Carter said.

From his perch on the porch of his 52d Street house, 67-year-old Stephenson M. Waddy could only shake his head.

In his basement office, the water had upended his refrigerator, left sodden bills and papers strewn across the floor, and soaked through a flag he had hanging on his wall commemorating his service in the Marine Corps.

Also lost, he said, were two tanks filled with tropical fish and his three cockatiels - Lisa, Bart, and Charlie - who had disappeared from their cage.

"I guess they drowned," he said. "We still can't find them." He did spot one of his angel fish swimming in his flooded basement Sunday morning.

Like Postell and other neighborhood residents, Waddy recalled the two prior water main breaks that had flooded the neighborhood and said this one caused far more damage to his block.

In 2004, a crack in a 48-inch main at 52d and Poplar flooded nearly 10 square blocks, prompted evacuations by boat, and displaced more than 50 people.

The earlier break at 53d and Girard Avenue in 1994 forced nearly 300 from their houses.

But learning that those earlier incidents had caused wider damage offered little comfort to Postell.

After living through each, she knew the city would replace air conditioners, heaters, and other appliances and cover some repair costs.

For everything else she lost - her son's toys, boxes of family photos, clothes and knick-knacks accumulated over a decade - she was on her own.

"They can't replace the stuff that makes up your life," she said. "That's the part of rebuilding that takes forever."

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@jeremyrroebuck