Monday was a long day for some City of Carroll workers who dealt with a water main break on Main Street that impacted businesses from the Knights of Columbus on Highway 30 south to 5th Street. City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, says rumors that there were around a million gallons released during the incident are incorrect. They are really estimating the number is more likely in the low 100,000s right now. The first indication that there was a potential issue came in early that morning.
It took crews about 16 hours to repair the break. However, once the work was completed, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued a boil order for those businesses. As of Wednesday morning, that boil order was still in effect.
With this particular main break, there may be a portion of the area that has been undermined and Pogge-Weaver says the current plan is to remove a section of sidewalk to shore up those areas and do more permanent patching of the roadway in the spring. Although he is unaware of the total estimated damages that the businesses may have suffered, he believes the number may be pretty high because a large area was impacted.
And though there may have been a lot of damage done initially, things could have been much worse if not for the hard work and dedication of city employees who braved the conditions to get the situation under control.
The root cause of the problem is still being investigated. Carroll Broadcasting will bring you updates on this and the boil order as soon as information becomes available.
