Updated Feb. 24, 2:20 p.m.
A continuous stream of water that had been flowing onto one Hamilton Beach street for over six days due to a water main break — causing flooding along the thoroughfare that turned into sheets of ice when temperatures dipped below freezing — has finally been fixed by the Department of Environmental Protection.
On Feb. 24, a day after The Courier wrote about the water main break, which is located directly in the middle of First Street in Hamilton Beach, the DEP sent crews to the site to fix the problem.
Before the fix, water was gushing from cracks in the asphalt down toward 104th Street and into a catch basin. And as temperatures were plunging well below freezing on Monday night, Roger Gendron, president of the Hamilton Beach Civic Association, said the water was creating very dangerous and slippery conditions for residents and motorists.
“I was out there at 12:15 last night and the road was very slippery,” said Gendron on Tuesday. “I’m glad they came in and finally fixed it.”
The break was first noticed on Feb. 17 by Joe Thompson of the Howard Beach Civilian Observation Patrol during his nightly tour. He observed the water coming out of the ground and turning into ice due to the cold weather that night. He immediately filed a 311 report but the only response before Feb. 24 from the city was a sanitation truck dispatched on Feb. 18 to salt the road in order to break up some of the ice.
Another water main break happened on the same block about a month ago which was also fixed by the Department of Environmental Protection.
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