A water main break in Santa Fe has left homeowners with a variety of problems, including their homes being flooded and their street being washed out creating a sinkhole.
According to a report by KRQE, the area of concern is near the Santa Fe National Cemetery with Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber confirming in a statement that it was on Juniper Drive. The issue was reported around midnight on Jan. 12 and has caused severe damage to some local residents’ homes.
One homeowner, Drew Johnson, said that he has had to rip his carpet out of his living room, remove the kitchen flooring and kitchen cabinets as well as the drywall in his home. Johnson was frustrated as this has been a longtime problem.
“Really, it’s been an ongoing issue for decades,” he told the station. “We’ve been in this neighborhood for 38 years.”
Johnson said at first he thought he heard a noise outside that was the wind, but what he found was a large amount of water flowing down his unpaved street. It continued for more than five hours.
Johnson explained that he contacted the city of Santa Fe that night, but water continued to rise and ended up in his garage, kitchen, living room and bedroom creating a muddy mess.
Video that he provided to KRQE shows the muddy water quickly flowing down his road. He also showed the aftermath of the sinkhole that was above workers’ heads. The video also revealed the vast water damage that he suffered in several parts of his home.
Johnson is unhappy with how the situation in his neighborhood has been handled; while he did say that workers came to help smooth the driveway following the incident, there are still giant ruts in his driveway from areas he already fixed from a rainstorm in July.
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber released a statement about the Juniper Drive water main break through his Facebook page. He thanked the crews who worked to restore the service following the break that affected 30 homes.
“The residents of this neighborhood took a real hit and suffered disruption to their lives and damage to their property- and that’s something we all sympathize with,” Webber said.