Water main disrupts South Side
Devonshire Road in Allentown is flooded Sunday because of a water main leak that forced several homes to be evacuated and affected water pressure on the city’s South Side, Officials did not know the cause of the break.
A portion of Devonshire Road in Allentown was underwater Sunday after a large main broke, knocking out service to many homes and causing low pressure in others.
The Lehigh County Authority issued a “boil water advisory” to a swath of homes along Emmaus Avenue and Oxford Drive, including the Alton Park, Mountainville, Wilbur and Waldheim Park neighborhoods, due to the loss of water pressure.
Residents in this area should boil water before drinking to kill bacteria that may be present, since the service disruption may prevent the authority from being able to properly disinfect the water system.
Three homes damaged by the flooding were evacuated after city code enforcement officers deemed them unsafe, authority spokesperson Susan Sampson said.
The American Red Cross has provided housing assistance for one adult on the 1000 block of Devonshire Road, regional communications manager AJ Suero said.
The boil water advisory will persist until two consecutive days of water quality tests show no signs of coliform bacteria, whose presence would indicate disease-causing organisms could be in the water.
Until further notice, the authority said, residents should let water boil for a minute and cool before drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and preparing food. View a map of the affected area here.
The 36-inch main broke around 3 a.m. Water gushed onto Devonshire and into its intersection with Mack Boulevard, as crews from the authority worked with heavy equipment in temperatures that barely reached freezing.
“I didn’t even hear all this equipment outside until my husband woke me up and said ‘Don’t go to the bathroom,’ “said Kelly Mullin, watching the crews work around 9 a.m. near her home at 11th Street and Devonshire.
“I came out and it was like this,” she said. “I guess it made a sinkhole over at the neighbor’s house.”
Officials did not know the cause of the break.
Crews were still working on repairs Sunday night.
“We are working as quickly as possible,” Sampson said in an email.
She initially anticipated repairs to wrap up by 6 p.m., but the process proved complicated: Before beginning the repair, crews had to first insert pump hoses in the broken pipe to remove water.
Motorists should avoid the area.
In addition to low pressure, residents may have cloudy water, the authority said.