Water main break creates icy havoc near U of S

A water main break at the intersection of Bottomley Avenue and Elliott Street is creating plenty of icy issues for nearby residents.

With temperatures as low as -36 C, or -49 C with the windchill, water flowing out of the ground was quickly freezing as it moved downhill towards Wiggins Avenue shortly before noon.

Small cars parked on the street had water reaching door frames in less than an hour.

As bad as the fast-rising water was, the situation could have been far worse if it wasn’t for the fast efforts of Rob Peterson.

Rob Peterson quickly ran to clear drains and help prevent Elliott Street from becoming a block of ice. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

“I saw the steam coming from the street and I was like, ‘That’s not normal,’ ” the Elliott Street resident said.

“We got the drains clear and that’s a good thing because you can see (water) is backing on to people’s sidewalks.”

City crews called to repair the water main were trying to dig into the sudden ice road with pickaxes to learn more about the problem.

One of the small cars frozen in its parking spot belonged to Peterson, who admits it won’t be moving anytime soon.

“I was trying to get (water) from not going above the level of the doors, but lost that fight,” he said.

Peterson said flooding is a common problem on the street in the summertime, but nothing like this has happened in such cold temperatures since he has lived in the area.

“I think the conditions were just perfect,” he said. “The streets will drain on to other streets, but in this case, I think it just would have backed up into people’s yards.”

Some residents on the block were rushing to their vehicles trying to give frozen batteries a boost before they were frozen in place.

Peterson didn’t have those worries.

“No car payments on that one, so I was going to buy a new car anyway,” Peterson said with a laugh. “It always looks worse than it is, right?”

With drainage issues happening constantly on Elliott Street, Peterson feels the city should look at the problematic 1300 block between Bottomley and Wiggins.

“Never seen this in the winter,” Peterson said. “We’ve had water main breaks before, but never quite like this.”