A water main under the street in the New Haven subdivision near Cedar and Teague ruptured on Saturday. Water was cut off to more than one hundred homes. Crews are still working to restore service.
Life in this Northeast Fresno neighborhood has been a bit like living in a third world village, say some residents. With the only water coming from a tank truck, suitable only for flushing the toilet.
Jaime Hernandez said, "It's just been kind of hard, no showers, carry these into the house use them for the restrooms to flush the water through, no way of washing dishes, no way of nothing."
Hernandez and the several hundred other residents of this neighborhood are eagerly waiting for plumbing crews to fix the water main that burst on Saturday.
"I'm really happy to get the work going because we didn't have any activity over the weekend," Alice Pawlik said. "So I'm really happy to see that something is happening now."
A private contractor is doing the work because this is a gated community, and the water and streets are not maintained by the city of Fresno. And these underground water breaks have become a problem.
Hernandez explained, "We had a bust right there in the middle of the street about a year and a half ago, busted out once and then they fixed it and not too long afterwards it broke again."
It's the responsibility of the homeowners association to pay for these kinds of problems. The company that manages the neighborhood, Northstar Management, would not comment.
Residents have been told the water should be back on by the end of the day, but some are making contingency plans.
Pawlik said, "In fact I'm going to go home right now and call a friend of mine and see what she's doing tonight because we might have to go over and shower at her house."
Folks we talked to love this neighborhood, even if one of the downsides is a lack of city services.
The residents here are presuming these repairs will be covered by their homeowner's association fees. They are hoping the water will be back on Monday night.