It’s more than a bit disconcerting when you turn the faucet to the right for your morning ritual, and all that comes out is the merest of a trickle.
That was my situation after my iPhone 6 alarm sounded at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday in the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. And it wasn’t only in the bathroom. None of the spigots here would produce the normal flow.
My cussing alerted my dear wife Karen to the problem. I wondered if it were just us. She figured it was a bigger problem than that. And when she saw Good Neighbor Tim outside with his camera, she had a good inkling she was right.
Where the water burst forth.
He explained to me that a main had popped up the hill from our homes around 5 a.m., and the resulting cascade downward made a mad mess, besides causing us to lose pressure.
He emailed me his pictures of the problem and cleanup, and told me I could share them here.
Poor neighbor’s driveway.
With some creative tub collecting and washcloth work, I made it to the library without setting off any nose-crinkling.
The aftermath.
No harm, no foul.
The street was still dusty upon my return sometime after 4 p.m., but nothing like in Tim’s photos here.
If you’ve been without proper water pressure in the morning, how’d you handle it? What’s caused the biggest mess on your street? What’s the biggest cleanup you’ve faced?>/em>
Mark Bialczak 
I live in a beautiful pre-war apartment building with – shall we say – seriously IFFY maintenance. I awoke at noon to ZERO water, not even a drip (I work nights – from a home office). I threw on a robe, raced through the small building, and quickly found the source. A man was replacing a sink in an empty apartment so that the office could re-rent it to some unsuspecting student, and “had to” shut off the water.
Really? They had to know what was coming – the new sink was IN the apartment – and still no notice to the building? BY LAW they are required to give us 24 hours, except in emergencies – which this most certainly was not. I could wait for a bath, but doing without coffee was a hardship I was not willing to endure.
After what was probably an out of control call to the office, I bought myself a ten minute reprieve and the “notice” that we would be waterless until end of day. I rushed around like a mad thing, filling pots and pans, my coffee maker, my dog’s bowl, etc. with clean water, and the bathtub for water I could use for other things.
Since the company is known for its lack of care about tenant retention (except for the college kids they target to refill their buildings each quarter), since that day I keep several jugs of potable water at all times – and electric candles at the ready in case they decide they need to shut off the electricity without notice. Until I can face moving again, that’s my solution.
Given what happened to you, it’s not a bad practice for anybody.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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We have a couple of jugs of potable water on the floor, Madelyn, for drinking for us and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, always. But I don’t like going to work without that shower. Showerless somehow translates to powerless to me.
Your apartment Lords treat you badly. That stinks! I hope you can conjure up a more acceptable quarters, my friend.
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I get it re: showerless at work – ick. The few times I’ve had to report to an office, it would have bothered me all day. Since I don’t, I did a quick PTA (sink “bath”), threw on dog walking sweats, then headed for my computer.
I’m sure I could abandon the “Lords” for better digs, but I’m not up for another move — I’ve barely recovered from this one, and want to leave Cincinnati. Speaking of which, rent is due at the office again — they are johnny on the spot with penalties. Ain’t capitalism grand?
xx,
mgh
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It happened to us only once and we used bottles of emergency water that we always have on hand in case of earthquakes. Not fun. Those bottles only go so far, but they are better than nothing.
The biggest mess was a burst pipe in our bedroom that required the entire ceiling to be torn apart and redone.
Why is it that water issues always seem to be the worst?
Great pictures, Mark.
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yikes! ow! eww! so sorry –
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That is a mess, Mark.
We have well water, so when the power goes out, no water. Worse comes to worse I can shower at the gym in my building, which is what I did when we lost power about 12 years ago after an enormous storm hit and wiped out power everywhere. The hardest part is not being able to flush. So we always fill up a bathtub with water before a storm so we can fill buckets and use that water to flush. Still, it’s no fun.
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Planning ahead is always wise, Elyse. Well ahead, I should say. 🙂
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I have not experienced anything like that here in the city, but when I lived in the country and my water was fed by a well, we had some tough summers when the water table was low Mark. Glad things are back to normal for you. ❤
Diana xo
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Had that a couple of springs ago here. Much inconvenience, but I do remember thinking it was nice it happened on a weekend afternoon and not a weekday morning. Ordered pizza 🙂
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Pizza was proper, Joey. 🙂
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Oh,no. I’d be frustrated at that too. Has not happened to us (fingers crossed), but no doubt, we are a lot cleaner than we think, even without that a.m. shower, Mark. ☺
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Wow-Terp! You guys do not have sidewalks there???? Gatorette.
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Not on our block, Gatorette. Most blocks do.
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A blocked kitchen drain a couple of weeks ago that had to be unblocked from the inside as the plumber couldn’t get underneath the floorboards, it was disgusting! Fortunately kind plumber unblocked drain and helped clean up too.
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All sorts of water problems are nasty, Vonita. The P word gives me shivers. Plumber, that is. 😮 Yours did you a kind turn helping to clean up, too.
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Woah! What a mess, bro Mark. At least you didn’t get caught already in the shower and soaped down when the water went off. That was my worst time with water main breakage, about 15 years ago. Fortunately it was on a Sunday morning, so I didn’t have to go out to work later. Ours was a water main at the Water Reserve, and the entire city was in the same stinky boat — except for those of us who were already soapy. That made for a sticky situation in more ways than one, and the National Guard was hauling in drinking water to us for almost a week.
I hope your neighbor didn’t have a car parked on the spot where the new pothole is located. The photo looked large enough to swallow my power chair, so I’m guessing it could put a world of hurt on a car
Have a good rest of the week!
A
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Caught sudsy! That’s a nightmare, sis Angie! And I’m glad you were nowhere near the swallowing hole here, dear. Yikes!
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Face it bro Mark, if a water main doesn’t get you the changing weather patterns are going to do it. And sudsy is a royal pain to rinse off after it has dried on the skin. Icky, sticky feeling all around. On the bright side, I didn’t need to use more soap for almost a month after the water came back online. And everyone in town smelled the same, because it was city wide and no one wanted to go out of town to rent a shower stall. One lesson learned was to fill every jug I emptied with fresh water, and to continue hoarding wat to this day.
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Water is a good thing to have around, sis Angie. Good move!
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It sure beats having to rinse off with Cherry Coke, bro Mark.
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