Water Main Break Forces Seniors To Evacuate Export Apartment Complex
EXPORT (KDKA) - Nearly two dozen senior citizens in Westmoreland County got a rude awakening this morning as they were evacuated from their apartment complex due to a water main break.
"I thought it was raining out, but it wasn't rain. I looked in the hallway and it was all flooded," Tom Cubitt said.
Cubitt is one of more than a dozen senior citizens who were evacuated from the Duff Manor Apartment Building in Export.
"I woke up about a quarter of five, quarter of six and the mud was gushing into the apartments on ground floor. It was terrible," Cubitt said.
There was at least two feet of water and mud on the first floor of the building after a water main break behind the building sent water gushing down the hillside and into their homes.
"We had a leak on a 12-inch cast iron line that broke about 5:30 this morning. It's now shut down so the crews will start to repair it. It should probably be repaired sometime by dinner time tonight," Tom Ceraso with the Municipal Authority Of Westmoreland County said.
Firefighters and rescue crews were called to Kennedy Avenue around 5:30 a.m. Nearly 20 residents were taken to a nearby fire hall to keep them safe and dry, but one resident said they are sad about what they don't have.
"Purses, clothes, a lot of them don't have clothes on, or shoes are gone. Everything," Cathy Shula said.
Crews are now working as quickly as they can to fix the broken pipes and to get the seniors back into Duff Manor.
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