Crews rescue 11 people during massive water main break in North Philly

This article originally appeared on NBC10.

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Crews rescued 11 people after a massive water main break flooded roads and vehicles in North Philadelphia early Tuesday evening.

The 48-inch water main broke near Westmoreland Street and Hunting Park Avenue around 6 p.m. while Elizabeth Anderson was driving in the area. She told NBC10 she mistakenly drove into deep water.

“Water started coming into my car,” Anderson said. “So I had to stand on top of my car because it was like I was going to drown in my car.”

When her front door didn’t open, Anderson opened the back door and climbed to the top of her vehicle.

“That was like, really, really scary because I can’t swim,” Anderson said. “So when I stepped into the water, I was like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t feel my feet.’ So I jumped on top of the car,” she said.

Responding crews used boats to rescue her and at least ten other people who were either stuck in their vehicles or a nearby U-Haul storage facility.

Bernard Young was one of the people trapped inside the facility.

“By the time I got out of there or tried to get out of there, I came to the front door. It was like Niagara Falls through the windows,” he said.

The Philadelphia Water Department responded to the scene as vehicles became submerged in water.

No one was injured during the incident. Some residents reported water outages. A spokesperson for the Water Department said they hope all of the water service in the area will be restored within the next few hours as the water pressure builds back up.

Anyone who still doesn’t have water after several hours however should call the Water Department hotline at 215-685-6300.

The break occurred only blocks away from the site of other massive water main breaks in 2016, 2015 and 2014.