Over a dozen St. Albert homes were without water for more than a day after a water main broke in Oakmont.
On Thursday in the early afternoon, Ledcor struck a city water line, causing a loss of water service for 16 to 18 homes in Oakmont. An unknown amount of homes suffered from a reduction in water pressure and a fire hydrant was non-operational.
At press time, water had not yet been restored to the homes, which are located primarily on Oakmont Drive, but the city noted in a Facebook post Friday afternoon it had identified the source of the leak and work was set to be finalized later in the day, with water service being restored at that point.
Brittany Hyatt was at home at the time and realized something was wrong when they lost the water service to their house.“I went to turn on the tap and it was just barely coming out,” Brittany said.
She checked other taps in the house and the hot water tank and couldn’t find what was wrong.
Then Brittany came upstairs and looked out the window and saw the street in front of her house flooded.
Brittany’s mom Lois Hyatt was also home at the time and they looked outside to see “a river of water” running through the streets.
“It was coming up almost like a small geyser,” Lois said.
The water continued gushing for 15 to 20 minutes and, worried about their lawn and home, Brittany ran out to put some small sandbags on the end of the driveway to keep the water away. The duo ran to the water drain in front of their house to remove any debris or leaves to help stop any water buildup.
The city originally told the family they had planned to restore the water later Thursday night or early Friday morning, but the Hyatts woke up to no water again Friday morning.
Lois said she was a bit frustrated when she woke up with no water but said she thinks the city is doing everything it can to get water restored to the homes impacted.
“I’m not harbouring ill will or anything, but I’m frustrated.”
In the meantime, the family has been provided with cases of water bottles and a $250 Visa gift card to help get them through the impact to services and to compensate them.
