Downtown Water Main Break Leaves Taps Dry

By Christina Georgiou


Easton Water Authority employees work
through the night in the middle of "superstorm"
Sandy to find and repair a water main
break in the 500 block of Northampton Street.



As if a night of nerve-wracking high winds and damage wrought by "superstorm" Sandy isn't enough, residents on the 400 and 500 blocks of Northampton Street in Downtown Easton are likely to wake to find their water taps are dry.

Discovered at about 1:30 a.m., the leaking water buckled the pavement and gushed into the already streaming street.

Police closed the block to traffic and knocked on doors, attempting to locate the owners of the few parked vehicles nearby, with little success.

City public works employees watched over the scene for a little over an hour, until Easton Water Authority workers arrived.

Water service was shut off around 3 a.m. in the area to allow EWA employees to take a jackhammer and backhoe to the street to fix the broken water line. Work is currently ongoing.

EWA employee Rick Soscorecz said he couldn't estimate when work on the 6-inch line would be complete but he and other water authority workers would be on it until the problem is fixed.

"It will be done when we find (the break)," he said. "The street is thick here, and that makes it a little harder."

Update: Water service has been restored, and the 500 block of Northampton Street repopened.

Updated at 11:41 a.m.