12-inch water main floods businesses and homes in South Philly

FOX 29's Dave Kinchen reports.

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Water Department responded to a water main break around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning on South Street between 6th and 5th Street. The 12-inch main flooded several businesses and homes in the area.

Jim Williams says he’s worked at City Blue for years and was shocked at the damage.

“I got here pretty early, probably about like 10:30, thinking we were just going to wet dry vac the basement and couldn’t even walk down there. Yeah, this wasn’t nothing I could control, no," he said.

Dozens of pairs of shoes were damaged and likely a total loss. The store was forced to close and it wasn’t the only one. The Chop Shop hair salon had a sign posted stating it was closed for the day and the same was true for Tattooed Mom bar.

Service was restored Thursday afternoon. Officials say traffic will be down to one lane until the middle of August as PECO makes additional repairs.