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A torrent of water, and then came the ice for Durango resident

Man’s property covered in ice after city water main break

Gabriel Gierhart and his wife, Ronell Oliveri, were asleep at 5 a.m. Thursday when a neighbor called to say a torrent of water was rushing past their house in west Durango.

Gierhart got out of bed to have a look. When he opened the front door, a wall of icy-cold water covered him almost knee-deep.

“In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea,” he said. “The two of us had to put our weight against the door just to shut it and get the water to go back out.”

The source was an underground city water main that cracked, unleashing about 1.1 million gallons over several hours. It was so cold outside – about 10 bellow zero – that the water froze within minutes and left a high-water mark on whatever it came in contact with, including a tree, cars and Gierhart’s garage floor.

Miller Middle School, which abuts Gierhart’s backyard, asked parents to drop off students at the La Plata County Fairgrounds until an access road could be cleared and ice no longer presented a safety concern.

Three days after the mishap, Gierhart’s property remained covered in ice.

His daughter, Giada, 7, pretended to ice skate Saturday in her front yard.

“Woohoo,” she said. “I wish I had ice skates.”

City officials have been nice, Gierhart said, but no one has offered to do anything about his property or the damage done to the inside of his house. He hired a local cleaning company, which ripped up carpet and has about eight fans running inside the house.

He was especially appreciative of Durango Police Department officer Bruce Hamer, who pounded on doors and windows to notify Gierhart and Oliveri of the danger before asking a next-door neighbor to call them.

The city spent about 10 hours repairing West 28th Street on Friday, but it didn’t offer to remove any ice from Gierhart’s driveway or garage, which was a little frustrating, he said.

But it’s possible these types of things have to be dealt with through insurance, he said, which makes sense.

In the meantime, Gierhart is still marveling at the amount of water that came out of the ground and encased his property. The deluge was about 2 feet wide and 1½ feet deep, he said. “It was moving too fast to catch a fish.”

He compared his backyard to Hoth, a frozen plant in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

“If it weren’t quite such an expensive fiasco, it would have been really beautiful,” he said.

shane@durangoherald.com

Feb 24, 2016
Water restored to northern Durango after contractor cuts line
Feb 4, 2016
Water main break interupts day at Durango middle school


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