A Coquitlam intersection has reopened after hours of cleaning up the aftermath of a giant sinkhole.

The 25-foot sinkhole opened up around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, after a water main broke and flooded the corner of Johnson Street and Glen Drive.

"It was like Superman landed in the middle of the intersection, it was just that bad," area resident Sam Roston told CTV News.

When crews arrived there was already several feet of water flooding the road, and several feet of water in the parkade of a nearby condo building.

At the peak of the flooding, there were reports that cars inside the parkade were actually floating. Fortunately, most of the cars did not appear to be damaged.

The water was turned off quickly as firefighters struggled to contain the flooding.

"We had major flooding into some lowrise walk-ups -- 2.5 feet of water in the basement," Assistant Fire Chief Gary Mulligan said Wednesday.

"We went into rescue mode making sure we didn't have people in trouble."

Crews spent hours overnight and on Wednesday morning trying to repair the giant hole left behind. The sinkhole was finally filled in and the intersection reopened shortly before noon.

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said it's still unclear what caused the water main break. The eight-inch pipe that broke was installed in the 1950s, but the city said they had no previous problems with it.

"They've got the pipe in the back of the truck and they'll be analyzing it to determine what happened," he told CTV Morning Live.

"There are settlement issues and aging infrastructure across the Lower Mainland well across Canada. We certainly need to examine how we continue to upgrade our infrastructure as best we can."

Stewart added there was little damage to adjacent buildings and there does not appear to be any environmental issues.

Residents are now left to mop up what's left of the water, but some told CTV that they're grateful the damage was minimal.

"It definitely could have been worse," Aynsley Pescitelli said.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Sheila Scott