Crews plan for ‘complicated repair’ after water main breaks at West Seattle apartment complex

SEATTLE — Six families are displaced in West Seattle after a water main break caused major flooding on Monday evening.

Fire crews were called to the 2200 block of Southwest Holden Street after a 24-inch water main broke just after 4 p.m.

Seattle Public Utilities crews turned off the water to stop the stream, which made its way into several units at a nearby apartment complex, by about 5:30 p.m.

Six units at the apartment complex were evacuated due to water damage, according to the Seattle Fire Department.

The water main break caused service to be disrupted for an estimated 2,000 people in the area.

KIRO 7′s Ranji Sinha spoke with Maggie Gullick, who lives in a second-floor unit at Westhaven Apartments, on Tuesday.

“It’s wild … when I saw the videos, and just how big the geysers were, I was just blown away,” said Gullick. “I thought, well maybe I escaped any of the damage, so when I got home, there was a big puddle in the kitchen and some things had gotten thrown over from the window sill.”

Despite the dramatic footage of the water main break, nobody was hurt by the floods or the geyser.

SPU says engineers will be at the site throughout the day on Tuesday, inspecting the broken water main and trying to determine what caused it to rupture.

These engineers are reportedly planning for a complicated repair because the break is extensive and horizontal, which often requires crews to cut out a section of the pipe and replace it.

SPU staff is now reaching out to the families who were displaced to work on a claims process after the flooding.

SPU is continuing to work to determine what caused the break.

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