Dozens of houses were damaged and firefighters had to use boats to rescue two residents from their homes in Long Beach’s Bixby Hill neighborhood after a 24-inch water main break flooded portions of the gated community east of Cal State Long Beach.
Long Beach Utilities Department spokesperson Joy Contreras said the break happened around 4:30 a.m. next to the historic Rancho Los Alamitos at the center of the Bixby Hill neighborhood.
Initial reports from the neighborhood said up to 100 homes were affected by flooding with some areas seeing water as deep as three to four feet, said Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Jack Crabtree. Another city official estimated the number was closer to 30.
The worst of the flooding happened on Surrey Drive, downhill from the main break.
Ted Eubanks, who has lived on Surrey Drive for 10 years, said he woke up to the sound of rushing water and went to the window of his home.
“It was like white water rafting,” Eubanks said.
Many homes in the area have second stories, which allowed residents to escape the floodwater until rescuers arrived or the water receded. Crews helped clear mud from nearby sewer drains, to help the water drain, Crabtree said.
Authorities and city staff were going door-to-door Friday afternoon conducting a “joint safety check” to assess any home that had water damage, Crabtree said.
At least a dozen homes on Surrey Drive had visible damage and seven were left without power, according to a firefighter at the scene. The rushing water moved at least six cars, leaving them resting at odd angles in the cul-de-sac.
Todd Fuson said his 84-year-old mother-in-law Vivien Arluk has lived on Surrey Drive since 1971.
Less than four months ago, her house backed up with sewage causing roughly $100,000 in damages, Fuson said. With the home repaired, her family was planning to move Arluk back into the home on Friday.
“I’m not sure what she’s going to do now,” Fuson said.
Crews were able to cap the flow of water by 8 a.m. Contreras said, but thick silt still lined streets on Friday afternoon. Contractors and public works staff were working to remove water and debris.
No injuries were reported from the flooding, and the break did not disrupt regular water service.
This comes four months after a ruptured water main in California Heights caused leaks, flooding, at least $1 million in damage, and left roughly 125,000 people under a boil water notice. In that case, a loss of pressure raised the specter of possible contamination, something that did not happen in Bixby Hill because it was supplied by a gravity-fed water tank, according to Contreras.
In a presentation before the city’s Utilities Commission in December, Utilities Department Assistant General Manager Tai Tseng said the main in Cal Heights, installed in 1947 and refurbished in 1975, ruptured randomly and without a clear reason. There was also a secondary break in a nearby hundred-year-old line, but Tseng assured this was “not age-driven.”
Despite the scale of the problem, Tseng told commissioners that fewer pipes break in Long Beach than the national average — four for every 100 miles of pipeline, as opposed to 15 in the same distance, according to the American Water Works Association.
A city spokesperson could not immediately provide the age of the line that broke Friday or the last time it was serviced. The cause of the break was under investigation.