Lightning Suspected in Lubbock Water Main Breaks - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

The Director of Lubbock Water Utilities says lightning most likely sparked a series of water main breaks that caused outages and low pressure across the city Monday.  Monday evening crews were still working to repair some of those breaks. A spokesman from the Water Utilities Department tells NewsChannel 11 five pipes ruptured in different parts of the city, causing problems throughout the day.

Crews were still working on a break at North Quaker and Urusline Monday evening. They closed the intersection to traffic, as pumps tried to empty the area so they could seal the rupture there. 

Another break near 57th Street and Avenue P did cause some customers to lose service. Water Utilities tells us all those folks should have had water service back on Monday evening.

They say lightening from Sunday night's storms hit the remote system that regulates pump stations throughout the city. That resulted in the water department having to manually switch some pumps, and they say that caused instability in the water system.

North Star medical facility experienced low pressure as well, but Water Utilities says it didn't cause any problems.  "We did check with them. We're definitely very sensitive to medical facilities, and they said that they were experiencing is low water pressure, but it's not to low for them to operate. I believe by late this evening or early tomorrow morning everything will be back," Director of Water Utilities Aubrey Spear said. 

Spear said two downtown breaks had already been repaired, but they were working to restore service to some buildings. He also said crews were working on another break on East 28th Street.

If you're experiencing problems, you can call the Lubbock Water Utilities Department at (806) 775-2595 for assistance. Again, water utilities hopes to have all these repairs completed by Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

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