Water Gushes Onto the Boulevard

The weather possibly claimed another victim overnight when a water main broke, pouring water onto one of the area's busiest roads for hours.

The 8-inch main broke around 1:15 a.m. under the sidewalk near the outer southbound lanes of the Roosevelt Boulevard (U.S. Route 1) near Unruh Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia's Oxford Circle neighborhood.

It took Philadelphia Water Department crews hours to locate the valve to shut off the water.

The water department said that once the valve was located -- a process hindered by snow covering the valves -- that people in the surrounding neighborhood could lose water service. The shut-off left about 40 customers without water.

The water on the roadway caused the outer lanes to be closed from Knorr Street to Unruh. The water department said that the intermittent closure of one or two lanes could last through the day as they work to fix the break.

NBC10.com's Jillian Mele suggested cutting into the inner lanes of the Boulevard at Tyson Avenue to avoid the break.

With temperatures below freezing some icing started to occur in the area once the water flow was cut off.

The exact cause of the rupture wasn't clear.

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