A water main broke around midnight Tuesday in Old Longueuil, causing two triplexes to be evacuated and leaving about 60 residences near the corner of Boucher and Belcourt streets without running water.
The water main dates back almost 50 years and is more than 30 centimeters wide, according to city officials.
The risk of electrocution also meant around a half-dozen households had their power shut off, with repair work expected to last at least 24 hours.
Perhaps no one lost as much in the ensuing flash flood as Louise Rouleau, an artist who goes by the professional name “L’Or.”
Within 15 minutes she saw the water rise about two metres in her basement, engulfing her life’s work.
“It’s overwhelming, to see everything gone like this,” she said. “It’s going to be a total loss.”
Rouleau had started to turn a corner professionally, as her work is being shown in Chicago and, she said, the Louvre in Paris.
Her husband, James Wise, estimated the loss at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The couple is considering legal action.
Longueuil officials are trying to determine the exact cause of the break.
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