SW Detroit water main break: 90% completion rate of repairs in 5-week span

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he felt a six-week forecast of repair and recovery by his head of the Detroit water department might have been optimistic after a massive water main break last month. 

The backstory:

But about five-and-a-half weeks later, he says Gary Brown's estimate is well on its way, with over a 90 percent completion rate. Duggan gave the update numbers on the repairs Thursday from neighborhood on the city's southwest side where a 54-inch water main broke in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, impacting 400 homes.

"We're now down to 15 families, in hotels, and that it's in itself, was an amazing logistical feat," he said. "Gary Brown, at the time, promised that everything would be done in six weeks, which, I didn't think was the smartest political thing I ever heard anybody say. But we're five and a half weeks later, and I'm proud to say, that the team has done it because of the help of about a dozen community groups who dramatically sped up this process."

Brown said that the massive water main has been repaired and that the street where it happened at Beard and Rowan has long been reopened, and will be repaired "like nothing ever happened" once the asphalt companies complete work later this spring.

The emergency phone line for repairs will be discontinued on Sunday, March 30. Anyone who still needs to report damages must call 877-311-3664 before Monday.

"The next stage we're going to is the claims," Duggan said. "We're writing checks for people for, lost, dryers washing machines, items in the basement and the like/ You have until Tuesday, 45 days, by law, after, an incident occurs to file your claim."

By the numbers:

According to the City:

• So far 126 hot water heaters and 125 furnaces have been replaced in homes with fewer than five to be completed.
• About 378 claims have been filed with 75 families receiving documentation and 12 already receiving their checks.
• Out of 260 families evacuated to hotels after the break, 15 families now remain.
• All of the repairs are expected to be completed next week.

DeAnna Dooley is one of the neighborhood residents at the press conference, and praised the fast pace of the repairs and assistance by the City.

"We're already back in our houses. My furnace has been replaced, my hot water tanks been replaced. They've cleaned, sterilized my basement," she said. "When we woke up in the middle of the night (on Feb. 17) none of us knew what we were going to do - but within 24 hours, we all felt at least we all felt safe again.

"The mayor … the water department took good care of us. With the situation that happened, I couldn't ask for a better outcome, if that makes sense."