NORFOLK, Va. — Em Doan came home to find a water main break causing water to gush into the air off of Ocean View Avenue Tuesday afternoon.
"It was just a geyser in the sky. People were stopping, taking videos, people were even playing in it too," said Doan.
At around the same time, another water main break sent water onto the roadway on Waterside Drive in downtown, creating traffic issues during rush hour.
"Especially, two of that magnitude - it really doesn't happen very often," said Mary Keough, the acting assistant director of the Dept. of Utilities.
Keough says it was coincidental the two water main breaks happened at around the same time.
She says the downtown one was caused by a cap blowing off. The one in Ocean View was due to a valve breaking off.
"It's hard to say why. It's just like the plumbing in your house. Sometimes things just happen. It's the nature of our infrastructure," said Keough.
Repairs have been made and Waterside Drive had to be repaved.
Keough says the Waterside Drive pipe was around 30 years old, while the Ocean View Avenue pipe was a little older than that.
"Neither of them is extremely old," she said. "It's not the pipe that broke, so it's not even that [age] would be a factor."
Keough said the city is spending more than $50 million this year on water infrastructure to help address issues like this.
Neighbors are just glad the one in Ocean View didn't cause any big problems.
"Things happen all the time. It was kind of like those things you would see in a movie. You just never realize it would happen right outside your house," said Doan.
