VANCOUVER -- Several homes were flooded, and a street became a river, after a water main near 132 Street and 95A Avenue burst at around 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.
"It was at least two and a half feet from the ground level," said resident Iqbal Singh.
The water was moving quickly, swamping houses before residents had time to move their belongings.
"Within 10 minutes it entered into the house and the whole floor and carpet (was covered) all in water," said homeowner Kavish Arora.
"All of our basement, all of our bags, everything is full of water," said Singh.
"There was water almost three to four inches in our basement," said homeowner Lashkar Sanghera.
Sanghera’s home is still under construction so they worked quickly to save what they can. But he said it the damage wouldn't have been so bad if the city had shut off the water main earlier.
"We called the city people at about 6 .m. and they did not shut off the water until almost 7:30," said Sanghera.
The city says they started shutting off the water main by 6:30 a.m., but the size of the water main caused a delay.
"The ruptured water main is of significant size – 300mm – and several valves needed to be closed in order to isolate the issue," said Ray Kerr, Surrey's engineering operations manager, in an emailed statement to CTV News.
By around 9 a.m. repairs on the water main were in full force and the street was back to normal, though inside the homes tidying up will take much longer.
"A month to two months because they have to change the carpet and the furniture as well everything," said Monika Tewari.
While homeowners gear up for a cleanup that could go into the New Year, city engineers still don’t know what caused the break in the first place.
"At this time, we have determined there is no obvious reason for this water main break, such as construction. We are continuing to investigate to determine what caused the rupture," said Kerr.
