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Massive Water Main Break Destroys Westmoreland County Street

WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) -- Depot Street in Youngwood, Westmoreland County looked like a raging river Wednesday afternoon after a 30 inch main like broke.

The water even spilled out onto nearby railroad tracks and into a building which houses the Youngwood Historical Railroad Museam and the Station Cafe. The building was built in 1902.

"There's probably four or five inches of water down there yet," said President of Youngwood Historical and Railroad Museum Ray Alincic.

Ray Alincic showed us the damage.

"The carpet, the walls , the insulation behind there," Alincic said.

Fortunately, he already had sump pumps in the basement from a prior sewer issue to help to push the water out.

"The water main was bad. It has been bad and continued to cause problems but we have ongoing problems with sewers so I'm kind of used to water getting in. It's nice having pumps to help save it from being worse," Alincic said.

"About half the road was already gone. It shut down everything. The water company was already notified. It took about two hours before they got it shut down," said Youngwood Fire Chief Lloyd Crago.

Water was turned off to a few buildings nearby and the Westmoreland Water Authority was on scene assessing the damage.

"One whole lane is gone. There is a lot of road repair here too," Crago said.

Even though these nearby train tracks got hit with some water, the fire chief said the railroad is fully operational.

As for Ray Alincic, top priority is to get his cafe and museum back open for business.

"We are gonna have to assess everything and see what damages there are because we don't know. The flow of the water was massive," Alincic said.

This is actually the third water main break of the day in the general area.

This one being the worst of them all. The other water main breaks were on 5th and Hillis Streets and the Midway area in Hempfield Township which also isn't too far from here.

The fire chief expects Depot Street to be closed until Thursday evening and said crews will be out throughout the night trying to fix the break.

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