WASHINGTON — A broken 10-inch diameter sewer main located on Southern Avenue Southeast is the cause of the flooding that filled 12 D.C. homes with waste water on Tuesday, according to WSSC Water.
The company says the repairs to the sewer main were completed Monday night and that they plan to put a camera inside the sewer main to check the integrity of the pipe in the area of the break.
"That does give me a great peace of mind," Khianti Silver, who was among the impacted neighbors, told WUSA9. "They did tell us they were scoping out to make sure the repairs went in efficiently."
Neighbors along Southern Avenue Southeast and Fort Dupont Street Southeast said they first noticed the issue on Monday night around 9 p.m. Silver said the wastewater was coming out of the showerhead of her basement bathroom. She said they have dealt with flooding in the past, but on Tuesday around 4 a.m., she woke up to at least 2 feet of sewer water downstairs.
"I would have never even fathomed yesterday to be honest," Silver said. "We have had things happen but never to that magnitude."
On Wednesday, WSSC Water told WUSA9 they had crews working to clean and sanitize all the impacted properties and that plumbers were checking furnaces. The company said electricians will also be available to the homeowners if needed.
The flooded homes are not WSSC Water customers, but the company says they are providing the services because their pipe was what prompted the issues in the D.C. homes.
"If you take a close look you can see how high the water was. That's over a foot, maybe a foot and a half," Kendall Grant told WUSA9 as he walked our news crew through the cleaning that was done. "They took out the flooring. Removed the baseboards. Took away the appliances, the washer, the dryer."
Some of the impacted homeowners say too often neighborhoods in Southeast are neglected, which is why they decided to voice their concerns.
Silver said she appreciates the attentiveness of WSSC Water.
"They really stepped up," she said. "I don't know if that was their intention initially, but with the community outreach and the news media, they stood up for the cause."
After losing sleep and thousands of dollars in belongings, Silver is still choosing to find the silver lining.
"The best thing about living in Southeast is the sense of community," Silver said. "We all stick together. When something happens in this neighborhood everyone reached out to everyone to make sure they're okay and that's what happened yesterday."