Water Main Breaks Hit Area

Service Cut Off To 90,000; Traffic Snarled

At least 90,000 people in parts of Prince George's County were left without water yesterday as more than 20 water main breaks wreaked havoc there and across the Washington region. Four families were forced out of their homes at the site of the worst break in Temple Hills, and 72 residents at a Bethesda nursing home had to be moved from their rooms after a pipe burst.

Officials said many of those without water were in an area bounded on the north by the District of Columbia border, on the south by Henson Creek Stream Valley Park, on the west by Indian Head Highway and on the east by Silver Hill Road and Suitland Parkway.

After service resumes, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said, people in the affected area should boil their water before drinking it, until further notice.

Officials blamed freezing weather and aging infrastructure for the breaks, which snarled traffic and bogged down emergency crews days before the presidential inauguration. They said they were working to restore water but first had to resolve what they called a second "service disruption" in the Temple Hills area.

The biggest break happened about 2:30 a.m., when a 42-inch pipe installed in 1965 burst along the back yard of a home in the 5000 block of Henderson Road, officials said.

WSSC spokesman Mike McGill, who was at the scene of the incident, said the break sent an almost 75-foot-wide river flowing from the yards of some homes into the basements of others.

"It was a pretty good size river of water . . . not very deep, but it was really rolling through the back yard where the break started and, unfortunately, into a couple homes," he said.

McGill said the pipe that burst was not particularly old, given its size.

Melody Richardson, a 40-year-old graphic designer whose home is adjacent to the burst, said she was working on her computer about 2:30 a.m. when she heard a loud noise outside. At first, she thought it was rain. Then she looked out the window into her back yard.

"It was just like a river coming through our neighbor's yard coming into our yard," she said. "It was just coming full-stream."

The force of the water broke through two fences, she said. Frantic and scared, Richardson called police. She realized that the situation was even worse when she peered out her front window. Another powerful river, she said, ran across her yard and driveway and flooded the street. She saw electrical sparks coming from her next-door neighbor's house, accompanied by loud booms.