‘City
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Healing Hearts
& Minds
Hate Trial
Verdicts
Premiere play
opens eyes to
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Man, woman
guilty in death
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See Local News, page 3
Volume XLVIII • Number 11
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • March 20, 2019
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Photo by d anny P eterson /t he P ortland o bserver
Portland Water Bureau crews examine a broken 30-inch cast iron pipe on Northeast Skidmore Street Monday after making repairs. When the pipe burst beneath the street
on Saturday between 23th and 24th Avenues it caused millions of gallons of water to flood several blocks of the residential neighborhood and the Alberta business district.
‘It looked like a river’
Burst water main
sees swift repair
by d anny P eterson
t he P ortland o bserver
A major supply water main break sent
a geyser of water gushing into the middle
of a residential street in northeast Portland
Saturday, inundating the street and several
others in the Alberta district with a wall of
water, flooding nearly a dozen residential
basements and leading to power outage im-
pacting more than 10,000 customers.
The catastrophic failure was to a section
of 30-inch cast iron pipe dating to 1915,
causing a gaping hole in the line which was
finally replaced by city workers on Mon-
day near the corner of Northeast Skidmore
and 23rd Avenue.
“The new pipe’s in, it’s been buried,”
Portland Water Bureau spokesperson Tony
Andersen told the Portland Observer. “We
thank the neighborhood and our city part-
ners for their help and their collaboration
and we appreciate everyone’s patience,” he
added.
Water Bureau Maintenance and Con-
struction Director Ty Kovatch said city
crews respond to about 200 main breaks a
year, but called this latest one “a very rare
event and the largest main break we’ve
dealt with.”
Andersen said there’s not a determina-
tion yet as to the cause of the break. The
age of the pipe along with the added pres-
sure on pipes from the thawing of frozen
ground by warming temperatures and the
impacts from new construction in the area,
are the top hypotheses.
When the pipe broke, it caused a four-
to-five foot tall geyser to burst at about
11:30 a.m. Saturday. An estimated rate of a
million gallons of water per minute flooded
nearby homes and businesses for several
blocks; from Skidmore Street to Northeast
Albert Street and on Alberta Street from
Northeast 25th Avenue to Northeast 31st
Avenue.
“It looked like the Deschutes River right
here,” said Kevin Hendrickson, whose
home was about 100 feet from the break.
“I am amazed they succeeded at replacing
that pipe that fast.”
“It was amazing how quickly peo-
ple responded on the scene and how the
neighbors all came together,” added Geoff
Knapp, another neighbor whose house was
about two blocks from the break, but which
didn’t receive water damage. He added that
it was “extraordinary” to have seen crew
work overnight to get the repair done in a
matter of days.
The repair was the culmination of what
amounted to a day and a half of around the
clock work from Portland Water Bureau
crew, Andersen said.
By late Saturday afternoon, PWB suc-
cessfully reduced the water flow enough to
start making repairs. From 10 p.m. Sunday
night to 7 a.m. Monday morning, they suc-
cessfully replaced the faulty pipe.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation
is expected to complete their repairs of the
C ontinued on P age 4