Eastside sinkhole causes major headaches

Saturday night hundreds of people were without water and some lanes on George Dieter Drive are closed.

Heavy machinery, utility crews and thousands of pounds of sludge take over what would normally be a busy street.

“At around 3:30 this morning we had a water main break,” said El Paso Water Utilities Spokesman Javier Camacho.

Saturday afternoon Camacho said they were still trying to find the source of the problem.

“We have about 20 crew members from the El Paso Water Utilities currently working on revealing where the water main break is,” Camacho said.

The crews know time is of the essence. A northbound lane on George Dieter Drive remained closed turning a busy four-lane street into a two-lane road.

“At 5 A.M. we shut the water down to the customers in the area so we could get in there and begin work,” said Camacho.

About 520 customers are without water. EPWU placed several water buffaloes holding 4,000 gallons of water for customers to use.

People at a nearby apartment complex said they’ve been calling family members seeking for a place to have a hot shower but those impacted the most could be businesses.

“I got a call that said I’m trying to buy water and no water came out’,” Roger Vega said. He owns an ice and purified water dispensary and said he could start losing money by Saturday night.

A cosmetology school in the area was forced shut its doors for the day, too.

“I’m just trying to figure out if we are going to open today or not,” said Jesus Chavirra.

Chavirra, a manager at Whiskey Dicks bar told ABC-7 the nightspot is frequented by many Eastsiders on the weekend.

“Today is Saturday, tonight’s the night a lot of people like to come out and have fun,” Chavirra said.

Chavirra said the monstrous sink hole will likely keep the cash register empty.

ABC-7 asked Chavirra how much the business could lose Chavirra said, “we’re going to lose a lot thousands easy…easy.”