Businesses along West Light Street forced to close

BALTIMORE - Along with the deafening sound of jack hammers, add in a dose of disoriented drivers, road closures and detours and the broken water main has confounded the normal flow of downtown Baltimore.

It’s also knocked out water to businesses along Light Street, like those housed in the old United Way building.

"It was horrible.  Water came in everywhere. It started flowing in the basement.  We have client files down in the basement so all of that... we're going to have to go down and look through them and see what's what,” said Sharon Brown who works as a paralegal for Robert A. Rombro P.A., “No water in the bathrooms.  It's like dead.  Even now this morning the elevator isn't working."
    
Next door, the owner of Freshii’s Restaurant sent workers home and began calculating the lost business, which would add up to thousands of dollars.

  | Click here for alternate routes around the construction |

As workers focused on running temporary lines to businesses to try to restore their water service, those tuck on a side street, aptly named Water Street, look a lighter approach to the mess.

"It was a broken water main beer bucket special at the Water Street Tavern down here," said Manager Josh Atwell, “The local parking garages were backed up about six stories with people sitting there, breathing in exhaust and deciding, ‘Maybe I’ll go have a beer instead of fighting the traffic to get out and hoping the water subsides.’  So we had fun with it.  Make the best out of a bad situation.”

And even hotel customers who had to foot it with their bags due to blocked off roads found some amusement in the water break that turned the streets into streams.
 
"I didn't get to do the paddling,” jokes Detroit businessman Brad Armstrong, “I had to walk about an extra half a block so I'm healthier for it.  I'm going to live a little bit longer."