Businesses, customers make
A water main break Friday morning, leaving many in Washington County’s busy Route 19 corridor without water at least during the morning.
The rupture in the main, near the state highway’s intersection with Manifold Road in the busy commercial strip of South Strabane Township, near the township offices.
“We have water here,” the surrounding places don’t so much,” she said later in the morning. That included the police station, just behind the main township building.
Pennsylvania American Water spokeswoman Melissa Walters said workers had turned off a valve about 1 p.m. to stop leaking from the 12-inch main, which had broken about 5 a.m. She said 6 to 10 customers were affected. She expected service to be restored in the evening.
“Those pipers tend to be 50 to 60 years old,so they come to the end of their useful life cycle and experience breaks,” Walters said.
More customers than the figure Walters provided – including some in the Trinity Pointe retail complex almost a mile down the highway – appeared to be affected. Walters said some “may have had low pressure at one point” while the valve was being shut.
Trinity Area superintendent said the 385 students who attend Trinity East Elementary were bused from there to the district high school for class because of the water outage in the building.
“We relocated, and it worked, and we had a productive day,” Snoke said.
In the morning, water streamed from the apparent place where the main broke on Manifold into the parking lot of a BP station beside the intersection.
Next to the gas station, Jimmy John’s remained open despite the outage late that morning.
“Our water is shut off. I went to Giant Eagle and bought like 40 gallons of water,” said Chad Ludzadder, operation partner and manager. “It’s not going to slow us down.”
Early in the afternoon, Ludzadder said the water company brought a water buffalo in for the sandwich shop to use.
On the other side of Route 19, a crew was worked with a backhoe in one of the northbound lanes, reducing traffic to one lane late in the morning. Manifold is closed to traffic from Route 19, but access to Cameron Road on the other side of Route 19 remains open.
At least some of the restaurants Trinity Pointe retail complex displayed signs saying they were closed because of a water outage.
Sherran Shaver of Morgantown was disappointed to find doors at the Starbuck’s there locked about 11 a.m.
“I just wanted a cup of coffee, and I love Starbuck’s coffee” said Shaver, who said she was on her way to visit her daughter in Butler.
A few doors down, Moe’s Southwest Grill was also also closed.
The Walmart in Trinity Pointe lost water in the morning but “everything (was) back up and running” early in the afternoon, said company spokeswoman Tara Aston.
Kathy Barger, who lives in the Windsor Highlands housing plan in South Strabane, said she seemed to have water at home before she left for work.
“I was able to shower and everything, so it must not have affected us up there,” she said. She said water outages pose an inconvenience for those affected.
“You can’t do anything without bottled water,” she said.