METAIRIE, La. — At Bill’s Collison Center on Napoleon Avenue in Jefferson Parish, Bill Brakel is used to fixing messes, but the one Wednesday is beyond his scope of work.
“This morning, all of a sudden water started gushing up in the air,” said Brakel.
That water is from a sewer line that busted, creating a geyser in the middle of Napoleon Avenue. In his 50 years in business, Brakel has never dealt with anything like this.
“When they built the street, I put up with a little bit of trouble for a few months but I don’t know what they’re going to do with this,” said Brakel.
The parish blames heavy rains from Tuesday for creating high pressure in the line.
Because of ongoing repairs, the point where the line busted was only being held up with patchwork.
“It’s right on your doorstep,” said Service Plus Auto Glass owner Stephen Klein.
For Klein, a flooded entrance caused appointment cancelations, but business must go on.
“We’re going to have to change it up a little bit, get creative. Maybe drive through the side streets or whatever to get in,” said Klein.
One of those side streets is Argonne, which Stephanie Matranga lives on.
“You’ll see them either turn here or they’ll travel to Clearview, so we just have constant traffic down the residential street,” said Klein.
Matranga says that is creating a problem.
“It’s concerning when nobody uses that stop sign to begin with and all the kids play on this street,” said Matranga.
Back on Napoleon, as crews work to fix both the sewer line and the road, the plan for business owners is to go with the flow.
“We’ll survive,” said Brakel.
"Yeah, we’ll be here when the sewer stops,” said Klein.
