LOGAN, Utah — A water main break in Logan has forced upwards of 30 residents to deal with damage from the break.
The water flowed into their homes through the sewage system, going up into people's drains, showers, toilets and basements, flooding homes with inches of sewage mud and water.
“My family grew up here… My dad taught in the school here… We’re good tax-paying citizens, and when you really need the city to kick in for you, they don’t,” homeowner Chris Nelson told FOX 13.
On Saturday, even after a day of clean-up, Nelson's basement was not a pretty sight.
The break happened at around 11 a.m. Friday morning, and Nelson recorded video of the water and sewage flowing down the road (seen in the video above)
Up and down her street, crews were trying to clean up the best they could — but it was a lot of work.
ARS, a local clean-up crew, was still working to triage 13 of the homes on the street Saturday.
“As I’ve explained to a lot of the homeowners, if it was an isolated incident then we could go in and just go gangbusters on the entire thing,” said John Horton, the Logan general manager for ARS. “Where there is so many that need help, we're really trying to help everyone we can by getting them to these stable conditions.”
Another problem for homeowners is that their street is just blocks away from Utah State University, and there was a COVID-19 scare there in recent months after elevated levels of the virus were found in residence halls' wastewater.
“Cache County had COVID in their sewers from people at the university when we had that outbreak… I’m concerned I have COVID-positive sewage in my basement,” Nelson said. “I don't know if I am going to deal with mold later in life. I don’t know if I will have a COVID exposure.”
In addition, Nelson says she can’t get an answer on what is going to happen next.
“No one has offered to put me up in a motel… Nobody is taking responsibility for this,” she said. “They leave you sitting for two days with raw sewage in your basement, so I just wish that one city official would have knocked on my door this morning and told me what's going on.”
FOX 13 has reached out to Logan City for information on the cause of the break or help for residents, but we have not yet heard back at the time of this report.
The city has announced that repairs will be made starting Monday, causing a partial road closure in the area:
ROAD CLOSURE-1500 EAST
— City of Logan (@cityoflogan) October 2, 2020
Mon. Oct. 5th the Water Division will be replacing a water lateral near 1500 E and Hwy 89. This will impact traffic on 1500 E from 7:00 AM Mon. thru Noon Wed. Traffic on Hwy 89 will be able to turn onto 1500 E, but Hwy 89 will not be accessible from 1500 E pic.twitter.com/oTtNcOmAui
