Modesto water main break floods streets, affects businesses

A Comcast crew installing a cable beneath Standiford Avenue in Modesto struck a 10-inch water main Thursday afternoon, flooding the area of Standiford and Tully Road and leaving businesses without water.

Albert Coito, public works crew leader for Modesto, estimated between 500,000 and 1 million gallons of water was lost.

Crews reported that about 25 businesses near the intersection were affected along Standiford from Tully east to Colonial Drive. No residences lost water service.

Tully Road had flooding south to Woodrow Avenue.

The incident happened about 1:30 p.m. The city water department initially estimated water would be off for two to three hours, but by 3 p.m., water was restored to the businesses.

Many businesses had to go to the shopping center’s Raley’s grocery store to purchase jugs of water to continue operating, including a hair salon where some 30 customers were in mid-treatment when the water slowed to a trickle.

Panache owner Lisa Jamison said they made do with bottled water to rinse out hair product but had to turn away customers who came afterward, and canceled more than 100 appointments that were booked through the rest of the day.

“You don’t realize how much you need water until you don’t have it,” said Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake pizza manager Kayla Sinchak.

She had to buy bottled water to make pizza dough and so she and the employees could wash their hands.

Jack in the Box partially closed, selling only prepackaged food out of the drive-thru while the water was off.

Coito said Comcast workers were burrowing a hole under Standiford Avenue to run a cable line parallel to Tully Road to the east when they hit the water main on the south side of the road.

The eastbound lane of Standiford was closed between Tully and Colonial for several hours while crews repaired the line then covered the large hole in the asphalt that was dug to access the main.

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Modesto water main break floods streets, affects businesses."