Burst main turns village high street into river
A BURST water main has turned a village high street into a river.
Residents and business owners in Ixworth looked on as a giant jet of water erupted towards the sky today.
Mary Bird was in the village post office when, at around 11.20am, she ‘noticed gallons of water gushing past’.
“I couldn’t get out the post office because Commister Lane was a river and the road was a river and everybody was jumping out of the way - there was a massive great big 60ft plume going up,” she said.
Martin Chaplin, supervisor for Tarmac which is carrying out resurfacing work on the high street, said the burst main was caused by vibrations from a planer being used on the road.
He said: “I was at the other end of the street when I saw this big boom of water coming up and I thought that’s not right. The main thing is that no-one’s been hurt.”
John Clare, from Anglian Water, said: “We are currently dealing with a large burst on a water main serving the village of Ixworth.
“It appears a fire hydrant has been struck and dislodged during roadworks and this is obviously causing a large amount of disruption in the local area.
“Several hundred homes in Ixworth will have been without water as a result, with many more experiencing lower than normal pressure.
“We apologise to any customers affected and are working hard to put things right.
“We managed to stop the flow at about 4.30pm and restore supplies to most of those affected. We estimate that around 100 homes are still off water and are working to see if there are ways to supply them via alternative routes.
“Workmen are on site and we hope to have the repairs completed in the next few hours. Exactly how long will depend on the damage caused when the hydrant was hit.”
For more on this see Friday’s Bury Free Press
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Weather for Bury St Edmunds
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
