A water main break flooded through Commack streets, homes and Commack Middle School's parking lot Sunday morning.
Michael Naughton, a labor crew leader for Huntington's Highway Department, said a 12-inch water pipeline running along Vanderbilt Motor Parkway burst early Sunday morning, sending thousands of gallons of water into local neighborhood streets.
A Huntington Highway Department worker who was out collected debris from Hurricane Sandy noticed susbstantial amount of water on the streets and dicovered the water main break early Sunday morning, sometime before 8 a.m.
The ruptured water main on Vanderbilt Motor Parkway has sent water rolling down hill towards Commack Middle School, heading east along the parkway, according to Naughton. It flooded the intersection of McCulloch Drive and Vanderbilt Motor Parkway and the water continued down McCulloch Drive, flooding low lying driveways and garages. Naughton water flow continued through a small section of woods and began to fill Commack Middle School's parking lot.
"It was lucky that we were in the area and we had trucks on the road we could get materials to prevent further flooding," Naughton said.
Huntington Highway crews were instructed to stop picking up debris, and were redirected topick up broken asphalt stockpiled by the Highway Department to built a barricade in front of the middle school.
As the barricade was being built, Naughton said workers managed to reach the Dix Hills Water District who cut off water to the area. The water main break had emptied approximately half of one of the standing water towers, according to Naughton.
"Dix Hills Water District got the water turned off and a larger tragedy was averted," he said.
Water district crews are still in the area doing repair work to the 12-inch pipeline as of noon on Sunday.
Commack school security and maintenance workers were reported on the scene. A school district employee said the water did not enter the middle school and no damage was done to the building.
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