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Thick Steam Pours From Downtown Manholes Due To Overflowing Waters

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Folks walking through Downtown Pittsburgh saw thick clouds of steam pouring from manholes around the Cultural District on Saturday.

The huge clouds were coming from a number of manholes on 7th Street and Penn Avenue all afternoon and into the evening.

According to officials, it was caused by the high river waters flowing into the steam tunnels underneath Downtown Pittsburgh.

Police blocked off some of the manholes as a precaution.

"It's a lot of heat underneath there, running through these tunnels, up the shafts and so forth, so the manhole covers can pop off and cause injury," Pittsburgh Chief Operations Officer Guy Costa said, "and the water could splash and burn folks. So we want people to be very, very careful while they're down in the Cultural District tonight."

Public Works crews plan to spend Saturday night pumping water out of those underground pipes to return things to normal by Sunday morning.

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