A water main break in San Diego’s Oak Park community left customers without water service on Saturday for nearly 12 hours.
Officials say a 12-inch cast iron water main broke around 4:20 a.m. near 47th Street and Federal Boulevard, causing some water to flood surrounding streets.
Officials estimated it would take all day, or at least about 12 hours, to repair the break. Water service was turned off in the area as crews worked to make repairs.
An official from the City of San Diego Public Utilities told NBC 7 that 33 homes and six businesses in the area were impacted.
One of those Oak Park residents was Demetrius Anderson, who told NBC 7 he had been without water service all day. Anderson said he had to get creative and use a water bottle to brush his teeth in the morning.
He also had to postpone some work being done to his house due to the lack of water service.
“It’s pretty annoying. Woke up to flooding in the streets and police lights flashing and my cousin telling me we had no water,” he added.
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Water department officials said water service was restored to the neighborhood by about 5 p.m. Saturday. They said the broken water main had been fully replaced.
However, on Sunday morning, some Oak Park businesses and residents were still without water.
El Encinal, a Mexican restaurant on Federal Boulevard, was closed on Sunday due to lack of water service. A note on the door said the eatery would reopen on Monday.
Eddie Markos, the manager of Rainbow Farms Market on La Cresta Boulevard, said his business was also still without water on Sunday.
Markos said the grocery store been operating without running water since early Saturday morning, when the water main first broke in Oak Park. Markos has been buying bottled water to keep his store and merchandise clean and fresh, he said, because he couldn't afford to shut down the market for two days.
Markos told NBC 7 the water had initially been turned back on at his business on Saturday around 4 p.m., but it quickly shut off again about 10 minutes later and remained off through Sunday.
“I’m hoping it’s going to come on as soon as possible, and stay on,” he added.
NBC 7 reached out to the water department on Sunday to get an estimate on how long the water would remain off, but we did not immediately hear back.
The cause of the main break is under investigation.
