Serious Flooding Follows Water Service Break on Hart
City crews work to locate and repair source of massive deluge of water on the Hart Highway Saturday morning. Photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Residential and commercial properties along the Hart Highway, just south of Kenworth Road East, are dealing with substantial flooding today following a water service break earlier this morning.
The City was first notified of the heavy water onslaught around 6:30 am and just before 10 am a spokesperson said crews were still trying to determine if they had a watermain break or a problem with a fire hydrant. What is certain is that a huge amount of water that originated on the east side of the highway at Kenworth Road was continuing to travel south, causing flooding to houses, shops and motel properties on that side of the highway.
Brook and Candace Tomniuk (right) live just south of the old Spotless Uniform building in the 3400 block Hart Highway.
Brook says the man was a City worker. “He said there’s a main break in the line at Kenworth Road.”
Asked whether water actually got into his house he says “probably into the crawl space but not into the actual physical part of the house where we live. It was up to the sides of the house and to the door.” Regarding his shop which sits closer to the highway than the house Brook says “there was a lot of water in there, it’s drained out now but there will be some damage to it for sure.”
He believes the vehicles on his property were not adversely affected but estimates the water was a foot-and-a-half to two feet deep at one point.
A house (pictured below) next door to the south of the Tomniuks’ home was the subject of a lot of concern. Candace says “this lady woke up to being wet. She fell out of her bed and she’s disabled and couldn’t get up and the cops found her in the water. There’s over a foot of water in her house and there’s no where for it to go and it’s still running.”
A City worker discovered the elderly woman and, concerned for her well-being and the possibility that hypothermia might be an issue, had police on scene call for an ambulance. Two crews arrived and made preparations to evacuate the woman from her home. However, that plan suddenly changed. We asked one of the ambulance attendants whether the woman was still in need of assistance and were told “she has declined.”
The entire entrance and parking area at the Rose Bud Motel is submerged, giving some idea of the amount of water that gushed out of the line.
Meantime, City crews are still dealing with the break and the subsequent flooding. Due to all of the resources responding to the problem traffic along the Hart in that area has been reduced to a single lane each way and, at times, there are short delays as flaggers handle the traffic flow.
Comments
Waiting for a negative comment about the number of city workers on site.
Ooooh sorry, the first picture. Couldn’t see what was wrong with all the city workers in the way!
Why would there be negative comments? They have job to do and they are out there doing it. It’s not like the pot hole crews where it takes 5 people to patch a 12 inch by 12 inch hole that takes an hour.
I’m surprised people like you, Hart Guy and Lien weren’t on site supervising and complaining to those guys how much better a job you all could do.
I was being facitous there, hahaha etc. There comes a time when people have to work, and this is it! They had no choice! I paid my dues as I am retired, but I always worked with the troops too. Never ever put myself above them. Troops are only as good as the person leading them. Period!
Maybe they are underwater??
Seriously people! You always complain about City workers, probably because you don’t have a job and sitting in chair you feel you have the right to criticize! So pathetic, let’s see you do a better job, oh wait, you don’t have one! Keep up the good work City crews, without you our water main breaks, snow plowing etc would not get done and our city would be in disarray.
the problem is the managers and city hall not the workers.
No. The complaints are always about how well-paid city workers are, how easy their jobs are and how generous their pension plan is.
@ Hahaha, sorry to be so late to the party, but work comes first!
So, are you saying that our city workers aren’t well paid?
Are you saying that their jobs, for many, many city workers, aren’t easy?
Lastly, are you saying that their taxpayer subsidized pension isn’t generous?
Really?
Hahaha, unfortunately, we have all seen situations where there are lots of city workers sitting around seemingly doing very little! We have all see situations where 1 or 2 city workers are doing the work, while 2, 4 or even more are standing around leaning on their shovel, or up against a work truck! I hope that you aren’t trying to say that what many of us have actually witnessed wasn’t actually happening!
With regards to the city workers working on this line break, nice to see them doing their job! After all, that’s exactly what they are being compensated for, and well compensated I might add!
“we have all seen situations where there are lots of city workers sitting around seemingly doing very little!”
The operative word is “seemingly”.
You seem to think that, but you really have not got a clue because you were just watching, and even at that probably for a minute or two.
You obviously know very little about the type of work being done at times.
For instance, digging up the street across from me was an excellent example. They needed to locate a water supply pipe to the house and follow it into the house. The technicians came a few days earlier to locate the pipes and cables in the vicinity with their instruments and mark the location on the curb, driveway and grass.
For the one day dig, fix and backfill there was a backhoe, a front end loader to carry the excavated material a few house down to store it on the street temporarily, two guys who dug by hand as they got close to the underground conduits and pipes, a supervisor to guide the operation.
So, when the back hose was working the guy in the front end loader would occasionally come out to watch the operation, and the hand excavators were watching as well, including the supervisor. That makes 4 people standing looking and one operator working for that part of the operation.
I could continue to describe the various sequences, including when the plumber came out, the fine aggregate fill was brought in, the solid was backfilled and compacted with vibration, etc.
Sure, sometimes people stand around, but unless you have any idea of civil construction work and how it is carried out, you really need to keep your “alternate facts” out of the comments.
@Hart Guy
You, full well, know that that was not what I meant. You and your ilk always whine about the compensation and benefits of city workers out of jealousy (if you are a worker) or out of greed and hatred (if you are a business owner).
From a worker’s perspective, you and a lot of other bitter, jealous people can’t stand the idea of other workers being better compensated, having better benefits or having a pension plan that you don’t have. Instead of seeing that workers in the private sector should have those things too, you and your ilk want every other worker that has those things to be dragged into the mud with you, hence the constant complaints about city workers being paid too high, working too little and, horrors, actually having a pension plan that the employer has to provide and guarantee.
From a business owner’s perspective, you and your ilk cannot stand the idea of any worker having a living wage, benefits or pension. You want to see every worker dragged down and scrabbling in the mud, living hand-to-mouth and unable to ever leave the work force, even when they grow old. However, you do want the freedom to pitch them on to the garbage heap when they can no longer produce at a desired level and be able to do so without having to assume any responsibility to provide an income after years of service.
As for city workers supposedly having it easy, your anecdotal “evidence” of that is on the level of Donald Trump’s “alternative facts”.
ht tp://imgur.com/5odTH0l
Gonna borrow a page from peeps/jgalt/beinghuman :)
Why did they say ‘old spotless uniform building’. It is the current location of the business.
Remind me again why the City is even considering spending millions on a new pool?
Never a truer word spoke. Glitz and glamour on the top when the guts and foundation are failing. I would vote against any motion for a new pool until the infrastructure gets the attention it needs so badly. If my house flooded, I would be right pi$$ed at the city.
Take a walk theough the old pool when it is cold out, then you will see why they need a new pool there. The Aquatic was built by a poor contractor and we end up paying for that Micky Mouse facility. It should not deteriorate that fast, this should be of a lower priority, if it needs a new roof that is as far as renos should go,for now, whereas the old one put its time in! We sure as hell don’t need a new firehall all of a sudden.
Needs versus wants, what is more important? We want a fancy new pool,we wanted and got a fancy new 15 million dollar Kin 1, and we wanted and got a fancy new 60 million police station, now what about the needs? How many times has a water main break made the news in the past 12 months? Too many times.
lol, that building has stood the test of time. Built poorly? Do you have a clue?
yeah right lien…troops are just as good as the person leading them… just go ask CUSTER!!!
Gimme a break ice, seriously! Things have changed since you were born in this era. Have you ever been in a supervisory position before, I ran a tactical team for 10+ years. I always worked WITH them as we protected each other! I always stressed teamworkM Custer was an egotistical idiots and had no leadership skills! Go to the battlefield and see how stupid he really was! He was minor league barely! So find another subject!
exactly egotistical bud you hit the nail right on the head.uh huh tactical wow you are impressing the crap out of me?? HOW come your still not leading the charge?? Anger management issues? as far as supervisory oh I think I know a thing or two about that. Now its known that you had/have exemplary skillset what was it: officer deployment…marksmanship…surveillance tactics…self-defence techniques??? Enlighten us.
Custer graduated last in his class from West Point. Maybe they should have found someone with a little more intelligence. :)
You know axman your not too far wrong with that…but it still applies in the modern era. Theres an old saying the a…..e is the boss!!
I love the comments about how managers and supervisors are always stupid or “a holes” I drove truck for a number of years and always bitched and moaned about dispatchers, supervisors, managers etc and how stupid they were, it was not until I went into “the office” that I discovered that guys who I thought were good workers really did nothing more than moan and groan about everything. Of course there are managers that are a holes but there are also a lot of workers that are a holes, having worked in both union and non union environments I found the union workers whine far more, nothing is ever good enough.
@Peter North
Wow, union workers complain more than non-union workers. And you think that is because non-union workers think everything in their work environment is good enough? LOL
I don’t know, all I know is in the union workplace the workers were more unhappy than the non union workplace. I recall the time I started a new job a few years ago in a management capacity, I was being introduced to everyone when the union rep walked in, the person introducing me to everyone said “this is” and before he could get the union reps name out the rep said “I am the guy who makes your life miserable” and walked by my extended hand.
Non-union workers are not any happier. They just keep their mouths shut, because they know their protection from unjust termination is a lot lower than a unionized employee. A unionized employee can’t be terminated just for opening their mouth. The same can’t be said for non-unionized people. Individuals in a non-union environment have little to no power against a unified management. That is why managers and business owners don’t like unions in the first place.
Start complaining about your wages and working conditions to management in a non-union outfit and see what happens. By that, I mean subordinate to superior, not peer-to-peer.
Regarding your last sentence. Sorry to say, but there are a**holes in every walk of life.
Peter you must have just had bad luck when it comes to the quality of your workmates and bosses. I worked at many different jobs over the decades both union and non-union and as a worker and as a boss and I can honestly say there was only one person I would classify as an a-whole. I was fairly new to this workplace and it was after one of the boss’s Monday morning tirades that the crew foreman told us workers the “You don’t need brains to be a Boss” joke. (ice just gave us the punchline.) So after a good hearty laugh the foreman went on to explain that the boss was actually a pretty good guy except for Mondays and that was because he was coming off a weekend cooped up with his wife at their cabin at the lake lol. (miserable wife miserable life?)
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