Streets, basements flooded after circa 1880 watermain breaks in Hamilton’s east end

A 145-year-old watermain in Hamilton’s east end broke early Monday morning, and has flooded multiple streets and basements.

Dave Alberton with the City of Hamilton says the huge pipe was installed in 1880, and was part of the aging water infrastructure it’s trying to replace, but local residents say that should have been done before the burst happened.

The affected area is on Dunn Avenue near Nikola Tesla Boulevard.

Hamilton police say that the flooding started after 2 a.m. and neighbours in the area tell CHCH that some basements are worse than others, one saying that their home also experienced flooding seven years ago.

The water swamped a number of roads in the neighbourhood and flowed into people’s basements.

“The whole floor’s covered in water — grey water I guess, and it’s just a mess,” said Norman Stanfield, who’s home was hit by the flooding.

In fact, it doesn’t seem to have been just grey water with sewage, just red mud.

The water was turned off shortly after 7 a.m. and the water began receding within hours, as locals residents started cleaning up the muddy streets and assessing the damage.

“I had water just below my knees, my couch was floating and this thing’s heavy,” said Grant Dolling, another resident that was hit by the flooding.

Dolling’s basement was swamped, but the thing he was worried about was a collection of treasured family photos he kept downstairs.

He luckily found them dry and intact.

“You know what, thank God, yep,” said Dolling. “She’ll be happy to hear that.”

Meanwhile Denise Maracle was struck by the power of the water that flowed through her backyard, as well as the basement.

“We had about a foot of water in there — everything’s floating and I come out and the water’s just like a river flowing here,” said Maracle. “It pushed everything. It lifted up the patio stones there and the driveway, it was just rushing right in.”

City staff say about 20 houses were affected by the water, and advised homeowners to let their insurance companies work with the city to deal with the damage.

Home owners with flooding or water damage are requested to contact the City of Hamilton. Crews are in the affected neighbourhoods handed out informational brochures.

The City of Hamilton can’t say what caused the pipe to break, but it is very old.

“The pipe is past its life expectancy,” said Shane McCauley, the Operations Director with Hamilton Water. “They were scheduled to be replaced in 2028 – 2029, but these pipes here, it’s a complex because they are main feeds for the city.”

Residents said this kind of watermain break has happened before in 2018, and say the pipe should have been replaced then.

“But the worst part is they never fixed it, correct?” said Don Yorke, a resident affected by the watermain break. “That’s seven years, and now it’s happened again, so I don’t know how our taxes have been raised twice since 2018.”

Repairs are expected to continue until Tuesday morning.