Water main break turns Regina street into a lake, flooding home
Family will have to tear up their basement after water surrounded home Friday
A water main break in south Regina last week turned a quiet street into a lake, flooded at least one home and left the area without running water for most of a day.
Deergrove Crescent was still covered Monday in silt and mud dredged up as city crews repaired Friday's water main break.
It's one of many that have happened during the current freeze-thaw cycle in Regina.
Jacquie Fauth was delivering cards to her neighbours on Monday, thanking them for their help pumping out water and cleaning up the frozen mess left behind by the break.
"It was like we had a moat around our house," Fauth told CBC.
Jacquie's husband Phil woke up on Friday at around 7 a.m. CST, looked outside and thought there'd been "one hell of rain." He saw a torrent of water rising about halfway up the couple's driveway, which is set on an incline.
City workers on site initially told him it looked like the water was receding. Phil would soon find out that was incorrect.
"An hour and a half later, it was right around my house and going out the back into the park, and my window all filled up and I have water in my basement," said Phil.
Phil and Jacquie have lived in the home since the 1970s and have never had a problem with the city's water systems.
That's why the scale of the water pouring onto their property was daunting, the couple said. It pushed snowbanks further into their yard, then moved around the house.
In the backyard, the water would climb until it covered the bottom step of their back stairs.
Phil said their neighbours quickly sprung into action, helping him set up pumps to get the water out of their window wells and out of the backyard. They even helped clear out ice left over after the water had receded and repairs were completed.
"They were were absolutely incredible. So we've now received gifts of food, flowers from our neighbours," Jacquie said.
"You couldn't ask for better people, that's for sure."
A neighbour's driveway — where the water main break actually happened — is now a mix of mud and silt. Other residents in the area were left without water for much of Friday.
Luc Lemoine, who lives further down the street, said it could've been much worse. He was originally told by city officials that repairs were not going to be completed until next week.
"There was nothing on Twitter, there was nothing on the city website. There was no information. I never got a phone call. I never got a flyer hung on my door knob, which is kind of what I'd expect. 'Hey, sorry we had to shut your water off, phone this number from our information,'" Lemoine said.
"So I had to call them and to find out."
The Fauths have insurance, which they say should help cover the repairs needed in their basement.
However, it won't be a quick fix. Humidifiers set up in their basement late on Friday were still hard at work on Monday morning drying things out.
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