Dozens of people needed to be rescued from freezing cold waters following a major water main break at Hertel Avenue and Military Road in Buffalo Wednesday night.
It happened shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday.
"It was a big feeder pipe," said Mayor Sean Ryan. "It's a 36-inch pipe, so a lot of volume of water went through, but it quickly flooded the street in the viaduct, and the fire department had to come to pull people out of trapped cars."
More than two dozen Buffalo Fire personnel were on the scene to assist.
"The Water Recovery Team was called out, as well as our UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle) teams and our heavy rescue operations," said Buffalo Fire Division Chief Wendy Majtyka-Hartman. "We had approximately 10 people in different locations trapped in vehicles that were in depths of three to four feet of water. So the heavy rescue and the water teams successfully pulled all those occupants from those vehicles out."
An NFTA bus was also affected by the flood waters. Two dozen people were retrieved from the bus and taken to safety.
Majtyka-Hartman added that several residents of the nearby Jasper Parrish Apartments also needed assistance by water rescue teams and UTV teams.
As a precaution, city vans were deployed as warming shelters for impacted residents.
In addition, a sinkhole formed as part of the water line break.
The flooding extended several blocks, from Chandler Street to the south, Lawn Avenue to the north, and east toward the Jasper Parrish complex.
As per city officials, the broken transfer line was causing some low water pressure for many nearby homes but no outages were reported. Crews were expected back on the scene in the morning to begin the task of repairing the line and the damage the break caused.
"The street will be dug up, contractors will be here trying to figure out where exactly the break was and get it back on," Ryan said. "The other bright part of the story is because it was a big transfer line, no direct neighborhoods came off that line. So all the neighbors around here have water, and they will continue to have water. But the big crews will be on board tomorrow morning, and hopefully we'll find it, and get it patched up."
Deputy Mayor Benjamin Swanekamp, whose specific duties include oversight of the city's public works, spoke of the process.
"Right now it's a Buffalo water crew with their contractor," he said. "Buffalo sewer has also sent out an inspector and a private company with a TV camera to assess. There are multiple five-inch sewer lines that also run under there. During this event, Buffalo Sewer detected another 20-million-gallon surge into their system. That shows that water from this was permeating the sewer system, so that needs to be evaluated, and may also have structural issues as well. So, this is a complex repair."
Mayor Ryan did not pinpoint any road closures overnight but he did advise people to plan on using an alternate route if they usually travel through the affected neighborhood.
He also acknowledged the city has old infrastructure including water lines, and noted that more severe cold could affect other lines.
"And if this weather stays this way, we're going to be ready for the next one too," Ryan said.
