By Rick Rouan, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – The pump truck sitting in Mike Hedrick’s driveway hummed as he bustled around his Northwest Side home, the carpet squishing beneath his feet.
The water came fast Monday morning after a 20-inch waterline broke just to the north of Hedrick’s development, a subdivision of about a dozen homes off Olentangy River Road near Riverside Methodist Hospital.
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It crept down Olentangy, banking east on Annadale Drive, overwhelming the drain at the end of the street sometime before 7:30 a.m. Before long, basements began to flood. Water seeped through the floor when Hedricks’ basement couldn’t hold anymore.
“It will be hours pumping that thing,” he said, gesturing toward the pump truck. “It would take me years.”
Residents are advised to boil all water used for cooking and drinking for one minute until further notice in an area (see map) bounded on the north by Henderson Road, on the south by the North Broadway/Olentangy River Rd. exit from SR 315, by 315on the east and by the CSX railroad tracks on the west
Columbus officials are trying to determine what caused the breach. The 20-inch line that carries water east from a 24-inch main running north and south on the west side of Olentangy River Road broke, and city crews closed the valve before 11:00 a.m.
American Red Cross was in the neighborhood on Monday handing out cleanup kits that include disinfectants, towels and gloves. For assistance or to donate, call 614-253-2740.
The break caused lower water pressure as far away as Clintonville, and nearby medical facilities also had problems. OhioHealth shut down several facilities at its Riverside campus.
OhioHealth Kobacker House, a 24-bed inpatient hospice center, also was without water, said spokesman Marcus Thorpe. There, 250 gallons of water were brought in to operate toilets; mobile hand-washing stations were being used outside restrooms; and patients and family members were given bottled drinking water.