Multiple water main breaks plague Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Residents marveled at the sheet of ice forming on a portion of roadway in West Philadelphia Sunday evening.

The culprit: a broken water main.

"It's icy, it's dangerous," said Alfreda Sims, from outside of her home on the 5800 block of Hazel Street. "It's not good at all."

Over at the Uptown Theater, the Action Cam caught water gushing out of the front door and racing down the gutter into a SEPTA train station below.

Workers raced to turn off the water and fix the break before it froze over.

On Sansom Street at 47th Street, a portion of the sidewalk had frozen to a solid sheet of ice thanks to broken pipes.

And in Logan, a broken water main left several homeowners with flooded basements.

"All we can do is wait for them to fix it," said Wendell Jordon. "And then I can bring a wet vac down to suck it up."

The city's water department said so far this year, they have responded to an average of 20 to 25 water main breaks a day.

Most of them weather related and due to the water temperatures in the pipes.

"The thaw that we might see later this week cold reveal some breaks that haven't shown themselves," said Philadelphia Water Department representative John Digiulio.

Residents worry that even with the warm weather on the way, these headaches are just the beginning of a long winter.

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