Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Team Coverage The Wasatch Front hasn't had any major storms for a while, but that didn't stop the streets from flooding in West Jordan this morning.
A water main broke, flooding out several homes and yards. The streets are pretty clear now, but it looked a lot different this morning: waterfront property, only it's the kind you don't want.
Troy Marsing, whose basement flooded, said, "It started rising really fast, once we noticed."
The reason was a break in a city water line. "It was a catastrophic break where a little break with a little pressure turns into big break pretty quickly, and so I think it's probably a big break rather than a slow continuous leak over time," West Jordan Fire Battalion Chief Rodger Broome explained.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water quickly ended up on Bora Bora Drive, and even inside some homes. "There's water in the basement up to the top of the bottom stair," Marsing said.
Marsing realized his basement was full of water just before 5:00 this morning. He didn't really have a chance to look at it very good then, but after the sun came up it wasn't hard to see the damage. "Just a lot of stuff stored in boxes: pictures, my stuff, just I don't know. I don't even know what's down here. I know we boxed it up and put it down here because it was stuff we needed to keep," Marsing said.
Rachel Gottschall also felt the wrath of the water. She says there's a reason why she wrote down so many things in her high school journal: so she wouldn't have to remember them. "It's kind of sad because I had, like, my journals and stuff packed downstairs, so they got ruined," she said. They were ruined because of water.
Authorities say the age of the water line is the reason for the break. "It looks like it's just an old line that's actually scheduled for repair in the next couple of years. It was just the age of the line," Broome said.
By noon, public works crews fixed the break and turned the water back on, but the damage was already done.
Residents here will be cleaning up damage at his house for a lot longer. "Try to get it cleaned up go from there, try to get a hold of the insurance company see what they insurance company is going to do, if the city will do anything," he said.
The cost of the damage is still not known. Because the flooding was caused by a city water line, the city could be responsible for damages. They had an insurance representative out here this morning speaking with homeowners.
