LYNN — A water main break flooded a West Lynn neighborhood on Sunday morning.
Crews from the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission were on scene at Orchard and Bennett streets from about 3 a.m. Sunday into the early evening repairing a 12-inch main, which was cracked, according to Daniel O’Neill, Lynn water and sewer commission executive director.
A main on Bennett Street ruptured at 2 a.m., which O’Neill said caused a ton of water to flow out, or 6 million additional gallons of water to leave the city’s water system in that five-hour period until the main was shut off at 7 a.m.
O’Neill said there are two mains on Bennett Street, so crews had to identify which one it was, and then four valves had to be shut. Work was made more difficult as it was the middle of the night and dark, with lots of water on the roadway.
Repair work included putting a new pipe in, bleeding the system and disinfecting it.
“(The main is) cast iron, so it’s probably going to be old,” O’Neill said. “There’s no way of telling why it cracked.”
O’Neill said no one lost water, but some people may have had water in their basements. The Lynn Fire Department in a Sunday morning tweet advised people to avoid the area.
The flooding comes in the wake of last Sunday’s storm, which dumped 8 inches of water in a two-hour time period and caused widespread flooding and structural damage throughout the city. West Lynn was heavily affected by last week’s flooding.
