FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Another sewer main has ruptured in the same Fort Lauderdale neighborhood where wastewater recently flooded the streets.
City spokeswoman Shannon Vezina said the sewer main break occurred near Virginia Young Park on Southeast Ninth Avenue in the Rio Vista neighborhood.
Emergency repair crews were at the scene to fix the leaking sewer main.
John Kelly told Local 10 News he had to walk through the raw sewage to move his car.
“I can’t keep my car here and I had to park my car somewhere else and wade through the sewage to get home, basically,” he said.
A 54-inch sewer main broke near Ponce de Leon Drive and Southeast 11th Street, spewing raw sewage onto the streets. Mayor Dean Trantalis said Wednesday that a temporary fix was made.
“It is feasible that when the bypass was deactivated and the 54-inch line came up to pressure, that that pressure may have caused the second break,” city spokesman Chaz Adams said.
Robert Streit said he couldn’t believe it happened again.
“I ran outside my front door and this is in my yard,” he said.
“This is the same sewer pipe that had a break last week,” Commissioner Ben Sorensen said in a Facebook post. “This break is in a new location. The previous break has been fixed. This is a 50-year-old pipe that has needed to be replaced. We are onsite working to fix this break and to assess solutions for this aging sewer line.”
Streets in the area of Virginia Young Park were closed during the repairs.
Streit spent a week at a hotel because the smell was so bad from the last sewer main break. Now he may have to leave again.
“They’re saying there’s about 2 to 3 feet of sewage creeping up to the homes and in the street," he said. "So I don’t know how long it’s going to be before it’s at my home, too.”