Cause of break still unknown

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After millions of gallons of water spilled into… Click here to view water main slideshow

After millions of gallons of water spilled into the street last Thursday afternoon when a 20-inch main burst in North Oakland, the East End is finally back to normal.

The break, which occurred under Dithridge Street at the corner of Centre Avenue, affected only parts of Oakland. Because of this, the Pitt campus was divided into two categories – those who had water and those who didn’t.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said the University felt its response went “really, really well.”

“Our first concern was sanitation,” he said. “We set up Porta-Johns on upper campus and directed students on lower campus to David Lawrence and Posvar for restroom facilities.

“Usually the Pete is used for [emergency situations] but the Pete was out of water too.”

University staff did hand out drinking water at the Pete on Thursday night for students.

All of upper campus as well as the Towers and the William Pitt Union were without water. But Hillman Library and Forbes Hall were among the buildings that did have water.

“One of our main concerns was fire safety,” Fedele said. “The fire alarm system was still available, but the sprinkler system wasn’t. We increased fire watchers, which means we set up more employees to make sure fires didn’t break out.”

The broken main instigated the shut-down of the Herron Hill reservoir and caused pockets of water pressure loss in Greenfield, Oakland, the Hill District, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and Polish Hill, according to Water and Sewer Authority spokeswoman Holly Wojcik.

Wojcik said the cause of the break is still under investigation.

By 3 a.m. Friday most customers saw their water service restored, and by Saturday all was back to normal, Wojcik said.

Pitt student Liz Reynolds, who lives on Melwood Avenue – about three blocks from where the break occurred – did not lose water service.

But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t affected by it.

Liz Reynolds was taking the 10A bus home when the break happened. She was forced to get off on Dithridge Street because the flooding prevented the bus from continuing on its normal route.

“It looked like the street kind of exploded. Centre Avenue literally looked like a raging river,” Reynolds said. “I asked the fireman if there was a way I could get across the street because the water was moving too fast for me to walk across and he offered to carry me.” Reynolds declined the fireman’s offer, but in hindsight it might have been better to grab a lift – she had to walk an extra twenty minutes until she could find a place where the water was calm enough to wade through.

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