Residents concerned over multiple water main breaks in Strongsville area

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio - Drake Road by Howe Road in Strongsville looked more like Lake Erie's waterfront after a water main break flooded roads at around 5 a.m.

It's one of several water main breaks that happened in the area over the past couple of months and neighbors said Thursday's water main break location saw about three incidents in the past three years.

Fred Kroupa lives diagonally to the water main and said, "I didn't think it would be right here because this is the third break we've had here in the last year."

Kroupa said the city worked quickly to stop the flow of water before things got worse, but neighbors who showed NewsChannel5 pictures of Thursday's flooding are among many wondering why the Strongsville area seems to be experiencing a recent uptick.

"Well, we don't know that necessarily there's an unusual overall in Strongsville," said Cleveland Department of Public Utilities Interim Commissioner Alex Margevicius. "Strongsville has about 190 miles of pipe, so on average they're going to get about five breaks a month."

Margevicius said Strongsville's pipe system is only about 36 years old, compared to the city of Cleveland's, which is more than 150 years old.

The causes of a water main break can vary.

Margevicius said, "Pipe is made out of iron. It's a ferrous material. It wants to go back to its natural state meaning, it wants to corrode and rust away."

This time Margevicius said workers reported an eight to 10-inch fracture in the cast iron pipes. City officials said the best way homeowners can prepare or safeguard themselves is to have some kind of insurance.

Joe Walker, Strongsville's service director, was out making sure the repair work went smoothly and said, "It's bad enough just dealing with a flooded basement if you have insurance. You know, it's a lot of personal items there that may not be covered and aside from that, even if it is covered, it's a huge inconvenience for the resident. But at least if you have insurance, you don't have the big financial loss."

Around 22 homes on Drake Road spent most of the day without running water. Cleveland Water Department officials reported to NewsChannel5 that crews repaired the water main and reopened Drake Road just before 5 p.m. Thursday.