OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — It's the winter warm up many of us have been waiting for, but its fast approach has caused damage to donated goods at the Open Door Mission warehouse, after a pipe burst releasing water for 24 hours.
- The burst pipe flooded the warehouse, damaging donated goods like diapers and toilet paper.
- Crews struggled to locate the shut-off valve, delaying efforts to stop the flooding until Sunday morning.
- "We think we put out about 1.5 million gallons of water in the 24 hours that it was running."
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's the winter warm up many of us have been waiting for, but its fast approach has caused damage to hundreds of donated goods at Open Door Mission’s (ODM) warehouse after a pipe burst releasing water for 24 hours.
On Saturday around 11:30 a.m., staff at ODM, including Jason Green, found this broken pipe and water going everywhere.
How do you think it happened?
"So that door was opened a little bit last week and it probably froze that check valve at that time and then the thaw yesterday is what caused it to break and crack,” said Green the director of IT and logistics for ODM.
Moving quickly to try and stop it, crews had to dig to find the shut-off valve, but they were having some trouble.
"MUD came out and located it, but it wasn't on their prints in the right place and where we started wasn't the right place to dig. And so, it took several hours to find the right place to shut it off."
It was eventually turned off at 11:00 am on Sunday. The crew from Eyman’s plumbing heating and air worked through the night to try and fix it.
"We think we put out about 1.5 million gallons of water in the 24 hours that it was running,” said Green.
While the damage hasn't been assessed yet, the warehouse did lose hundreds of pounds of donated goods; mostly toilet paper and diapers, items the nonprofit says are much needed by neighbors in our communities.
Now that the water has been shut off, cleanup begins. Green says that thankfully the impact to overall operations will be minimal. But if people do feel inclined, they are always in need of diapers and accept donations at the Timberlake Outreach Center.
