NEW ORLEANS —
People living in New Orleans’ Lake Terrace neighborhood are scratching their heads, curious about what caused several large holes to form and gush water over the weekend.
One hole in particular even swallowed up a 60-year-old magnolia tree in Ana Rodriguez’s yard.
“I saw that I had a river basically on the side of my house,” said Rodriguez, who said she called the Sewerage and Water Board on Thursday after she first noticed a small leak on the sidewalk in front of her house on Killdeer Street.
When crews showed up Saturday, the leak turned into a much larger problem.
“Sewerage and Water Board was ringing our doorbell and there was a sense of urgency for us to come to the door and then I saw I had a river,” said Rodriguez.
“I couldn’t believe it, because it had just been about 48 hours since we reported seeing the leak, So it was really crazy that we were witnessing water gushing,” she said.
Rodriguez said before crews stopped the leak and filled the hole it was at least six feet deep and about 20 feet wide. It even took down her magnolia tree.
“The magnolia tree had fallen into the hole and fallen over. Thankfully it did not fall on our house,” said Rodriguez.
After that, another hole popped up on the other side of Rodriguez's walkway, then other neighbors started feeling the impacts.
“One of our neighbors came by in the morning, when everything had occurred. She told us there was someone around the corner who had water coming out of their driveway,” said Rodriguez.
Even still, there was another hole visible Tuesday, making it four total. S&WB officials said the water main break was the result of an old pipe breaking, which they repaired. Rodriguez said she hopes it’s not a recurring problem.
“As far as I know, we don’t have the oldest pipes in the city so I don’t know if there is something that they are just not telling us about,” said Rodriguez.
S&WB officials said they would restore Rodriguez’ yard but did not say when.
Rodriguez said that one of the S&WB workers told her on Saturday that the problem was caused by increased water pressure at the N. Claiborne water tower and that the pipes could not handle the increase. S&WB officials said they could confirm this reason Tuesday evening but did not by Monday night.