Water main break sends torrent down Como Street

Jeremy Dietz was in that pleasant physical state between wakefulness and sleep on Tuesday afternoon when he heard the sound of rushing water.

There are no rivers or streams close by Dietz's apartment building in the 1400 block of Como Street. He discovered the sound was coming from a water main that broke in the middle of the street at around 2 p.m.

"It was like a creek flowing - hella fast," said Dietz, 21, as he stood on the steps of his apartment looking out toward the street, where water and silt still flowed along the curbs on both sides of Como. "I was told to move my car."

A wide swath of mud was visible along each side of the street about 200 feet away from the break. Water initially flowed down the street, above the curbs and was breaking about halfway up the tires of Dietz's car, he said.

The break forced the closure of Como from apartments in the 1300 to 1500 end of the block at Carson Meadow Drive, and happened not too far from the site of another water main bust last July on the same street.

The street was to be reopened after city employees vacuumed out the water and put a temporary patch on the 12-by-12 foot section of street above the failed eight-inch water main. It will receive a permanent fix later.

"It's an older line," said Andy Burnham, the city's public works director. "Thirty-plus years old."

The city was still trying to determine why the line broke this time. Hot weather and increased water usage were cited as the cause of last year's break.

"We mobilized right away," Burnham said. "We got a lot of people out there to work on it."

Water service to the neighborhood was turned off for much of the afternoon, but was back on by evening.

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.