Water Main Break Causes SF Sinkhole

An intersection is flooded and a Muni route slightly affected

San Francisco firefighters raced to stop he flow of a water main break in the city's Visitacion Valley neighborhood on Monday, which gushed through city streets for nearly two hours and caused a huge sink hole.

The actual  break came at Sunnydale Avenue and Cora Street when a 42-inch main line ruptured. But the water began flooding Bayshore Boulevard about 11:30 a.m. and was capped by 1:10 p.m, according to the San Francisco Public Utility Commission.

Residents in the area experienced no or low water pressure, and at least five properties reported flood damage, including a school, Our Lady of the Visitacion School, where 200 children were evacuated to another site, said SFPUC spokeswoman Betsy Rhodes.

By noon, Rhodes said that crews had "nearly isolated" where the break had occurred, and had been able to get the gushing of water to decrease. By 1:10 p.m., the break had been capped. And by 2:30 p.m., a large sinkhole had been created, where pavement buckled under the flood of water.

Images of brown, dirty drinking water pouring out onto Bayshore Boulevard could be seen from the NBC Bay Area helicopter an hour into the break.

A Muni spokesman said the 9 San Bruno line was affected, but only slightly as the route was moved over one block. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}

There was a construction crew at the scene, but it is unclear if they were involved in the break. Officials have not yet determined how the break occurred.

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