Crews used a crane to move some tractor-trailers so they could begin to fix a broken water line that flooded a South Florida neighborhood Sunday.
Eddy Gervais said Sunday services were winding down at the Community Christian Church, which he runs with his wife, Delphine Gervais, when water started coming into the building.
"Service was wrapping up. We said, 'Amen,' and all of a sudden, rain started coming down, but not knowing the water main has burst down the block," Eddy Gervais said.
A 36-inch, 50-year-old water line snapped, sending millions of gallons of freshwater into the neighborhood of Northeast 76th Street and Third Place, flooding homes and damaging cars.
The water gushed into the church, which also houses a day camp for children. Now, the couple has had to hang a "closed" sign above a number of sandbags at their door.
"We run a church. This is a church and a community program, and now we've had to tell the kids to stay home indefinitely because this is going to take a lot of manpower to deal with," Delphine Gervais said.
Two heavy tractor-trailers are sitting above the broken line, making it impossible for crews to fix the pipe until they are removed.
Crews are waiting for a specially designed crane to arrive so they can remove the trailers and fix the line.
Meanwhile, those at the Community Christian Church are working to dry things out and replace computers and other equipment that the 60-plus children use there over the summer.
"We're in shock, as a church. We're in shock. It's overwhelming to walk in here and see the work that has to be done. Very overwhelming -- that would be the word that I'd use," Delphine Gervais said.
Much of the water had receded by Monday, but those in the area are still dealing with the aftermath.
Broken pipe passed recent inspection
The cast iron water line that ruptured Sunday underwent an inspection last month and was given the all-clear.
At the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, older, outdated galvanized steel pipes serve as props, corroded and filled with hardened sediment.
"There's no magic age to a pipe. If something's 50, 40, 30 years old, it doesn't mean it's going to be replaced because it hit a specific age," said Jennifer Messemer, of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department.
That is why crews make a circuit of the county's pipes to inspect them.
"They have a grid, and basically a nine-month period, all 7,000 miles of water pipe are evaluated," Messemer said.
The leak detection team that checked out the pipe in the first week of June said it found no evidence of a crack or a leak, or any other problems.
"If we did not have this program, you would be seeing pipes breaking in a far more frequent manner," Messemer said.