Cleanup Continues Near Site of Frankford Ave. Water Main Break
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cleanup continues at Frankford and Torresdale Avenues, in the Frankford section of the city, where a water main break on Monday spilled 23 million gallons of water into the streets.
And there's a lot of work left to be done.
Today would have been a day off for the staff of Nana's Day Care. But instead, they were helping owner Joanne McClain assess the damage from four feet of water that poured in earlier this week when a water main under the street broke.
"A lot of stuff was damaged, mainly anything that was wood," McClain told KYW Newsradio today. "Anything that is wood has to be ripped out and taken out. They will be taking out three feet of the wall, because that was what the water got up to."
The Philadelphia Water Department is now calculating the damage caused to the inventory of three auto dealerships in the intersection. They say there's a claims process but it has a $500,000 cap.
John Silva says his Best Buy Imports was wiped out.
"All my cars were flooded, and we lost about twenty cars," he said today.
A block away, Dan Kelly was only a little luckier. His lot was spared but not his repair shop, which he photographed at the height of the flood.
"You can see the cars underwater," he said. "There's one here you can just see the roof. And I guess most of them are a total loss."
In the meantime, water department workers continue clearing water and debris from the 20-foot hole that has closed a block of Frankford Avenue. They expect equipment to access the broken main to be in place next week.
