Massive water main break floods east end neighbourhood

It's a bad time to be a worm in Mike Irving's back yard.

Torrents of water gushed through his home and yard Tuesday evening, after a water main break near the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant flooded nearby streets and homes.

Signs of the damage were clear at Irving's Grace Avenue home Wednesday morning, from the winter tires that had floated to the end of his driveway, to the mass of worms that had long since stopped wriggling on the soaked concrete next to his yard.

Irving was sitting in his living room around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when he noticed something was wrong.

"I heard crashing," he told CBC News. "It was the water in the crawl space hitting the heat vents."

Quickly, the water shot up about a foot, and was forceful enough to push out some of the boards at the base of his home, and blow open the gate heading into his back yard.

"It was just tearing through like a river. I could barely stand up," he said. "I've never seen anything like it."

Andrew Grice, the director of Hamilton water, said the water erupted out of a break in a 20-inch pipe carrying water fromthe Woodward treatment plant.

It's not yet clear what caused the break. Crews worked throughout the evening to get the water levels down, and were in the process of repairing the problem Wednesday morning.

"This isn't too uncommon, given the age of some of our infrastructure," Grice said.

About 60 homes in the area were dealing with flooding, he said. "They were hit very hard."

Irving's was one of those. His furnace is shot, and he's also worried about water damage to the foundation of his home.

"I'm kind of scared about that," he said.

Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla told CBC News that compassionate grants are being enacted by the city, with $1,000 available to homeowners to cover the deductible for their insurance policies.

"It's so they don't have any costs," he said.

Merulla also said the city received a number of complaints about vibrations or "mini earthquakes" in the area during the day, before the flooding. He said he believes the vibrations are related to construction at the nearby sewer treatment plant.

Officials are now investigating, he said.

adam.carter@cbc.ca