Cars freeze to street after water main break
A water main break on Milwaukee's east side caused water to flood the area near Pleasant Street and Franklin Place. Tuesday afternoon. A whole city block of parked cars were stuck in a block of ice.
By Kendall Keys
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MILWAUKEE (WISN) — A water main break on Milwaukee’s east side caused water to flood the area near Pleasant Street and Franklin Place. Tuesday afternoon. A whole city block of parked cars were stuck in a block of ice.
Betsy Vornholt, communications officer for Milwaukee Water Works, said extreme cold temperatures were to blame.
“This morning MWW crews responded to a branch leak, which is a smaller, secondary pipe that connects to the water main, and in the afternoon a main break around the corner. Both a result of the extreme cold, which puts added stress on the infrastructure,” Vornholt said.
Milwaukee Department of Public Works crews were on the scene for hours, working to make repairs.
“You see all these cars, man? It’s just, it’s insane to see. I had to take a video for myself. I couldn’t believe it,” Jackson Bishop, who lives nearby, said.
Kylie Schwabe also lives nearby. Her car was stuck in the ice.
“Almost all my tires are like completely frozen to the ground, which I’ve never seen before, despite being a lifelong Wisconsinite,” Schwabe said.
Vornholt said the leak was repaired by Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear whether the work to repair the main break was completed, but WISN 12 News saw crews still working late Tuesday night.
“My first thought was, you know, this could be a significant amount of people that live on this road that call in, you know, for work today. Ain’t nobody going to get out of that,” Bishop said.
“It definitely sucks. I had to call in to work, so did my partner. We can’t really go anywhere,” Schwabe said.
Some drivers were able to chip away at the ice and break their cars free. A tow truck also helped pull some cars from the ice.
“My daughter’s car’s down here, and she teaches school down here. So she texted me a picture of it,” said Mike McGrath of Oshkosh. “So then I jumped in the car and came down and chipped her out. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, for sure.”
“I have a shovel, so I can dig out when it gets to that point, but I don’t think we’re breaking that ice yet,” Schwabe said.
Vornholt said water service was shut off for the branch leak on Franklin Pl. and that water service was restored there in the early afternoon. She did not have information about whether water service was shut off for the water main break around the corner or whether it had been restored late Tuesday.
WISN 12 News saw additional DPW crews working to make repairs near State and Milwaukee streets, and are waiting to hear from the city for additional information.
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