Dronebeelden show huge crater after water leak in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, contingency of power

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw A break in a main pipe of drinking water last night, streets and cellars flooded set in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. The rising water caused a crater of 15 on 15 metres and 5 metres deep. The municipal emergency plan is initiated. Remarkable: the water leakage was yesterday already reported.

“I heard outside a loud sound,” says local resident Antonio Renda. “At first I thought a plane, but because the noise continued I went to the window to look. There I saw the huge water leak. In my garage, a bedroom and two other rooms on the ground floor, which is lower than the level of the street, stood about five inches of water. Together with my granddaughter, Ornella Vella I have the water extracted with aftrekkers. The damage is huge.”

The leak itself was on the corner of the Patrijzenlaan with the Fazentenlaan. Just on that corner lives Bart Monfils with his wife and father-in-law. They can't understand the situation. “Really amazing,” he sighs. “Around 10 am yesterday morning called my wife the water company to report the leak. There bubbled up water from the footpath. Eventually, someone from the water company on the spot come. He said it was ok and they leak Friday morning went to restore. ‘The water that drains to and is just in the sewer, " he said.

Signpost with flashing light

In the afternoon was a pole with a flashing light on that place. “Around 20 hours we saw that the bubbling-up water fountain had become, and single vowels of the footpath had already been drain. And yet a few hours later, between 23 hours and 1 hour, we were with this face. A part of the front garden is fully drain and our two garages are under water. We also fear for the stability of the house.” His concern was not unjustified, because when it became clear what the crater was created was the family evacuated and transferred to the shelter.

The water conjured up the streets in the district in a short time, to rushing rivers. On the leak itself, flowed the asphalt and the mud road, while a street lamp was also swept away. The fire zone Vlaams-Brabant West jerked massively and resulted in zandzakjes. “Around 2 o'clock the municipal noodfase started,” says mayor Luc Deconinck (N-VA). “In the district is a command post established and they are in contact with the cell in the town hall. I, the chief of police of the local police, a fire brigade officer and the noodplanambtenaar are part of that cell. An estimated a dozen basements flooded and a home was evacuated.”