Number of water main breaks in Detroit rises as cleanup continues

Residents across Detroit are dealing with more water main breaks as these frigid temperatures stick around.

Across the city, crews are working nonstop in these brutal temperatures to fix water main breaks.

City officials tell CBS News Detroit they're making progress, but the number of water main breaks since Tuesday has risen.

"We're at 61. It did go up overnight. We're staying on top of it," said Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Deputy Director Sam Smalley.

Smalley says that as of Wednesday, reports of water main breaks are still scattered across the city.

"We've added additional resources. We have eleven water main break crews out there. We have eight crews that are doing nothing but removing ice and snow from impacted areas," Smalley said.

Laing Street on Detroit's east side is cleared out now, but was hit hard on Tuesday with residents trapped in their homes as slabs of ice and frozen water blocked driveways.

"Crazy. It's still, as you can see kinda hectic out here," said resident Will Johnson.

Johnson tells CBS News Detroit that no damage was done to his home or vehicles, but others were not so lucky.

"Couple cars got stuck in the water, froze, couldn't get out," Johnson said.

One neighbor says she's fed up. Her basement was left in a mess, and she claims this street has a history of flooding.

"It was terrible. We really couldn't go out the house. Basement flooding, water here, water there. It's ridiculous," she said.

Freezing temperatures and aging infrastructure are the root cause of these water main breaks. But is the city taking steps to be proactive?

"We have a robust capital improvement program on our water site. We're investing $100 million a year on the water assets," Smalley said.

Smalley says regularly, the city inspects 3,000 miles of water main across Detroit and replaces pipes as needed to minimize the risk of water main breaks.

"What we do is we go neighborhood by neighborhood and do a comprehensive inspection and assessment on both the water and wastewater assets. For the water specifically, we look at break history, we look at when the material was installed, what material was it. A lot of our water mains are cast iron. We look at all of that data, and then we start strategically replacing those mains that are the highest risk. That seems to have made a very positive impact on the overall number of breaks that we're having," said Smalley.

If you have any issues to report, like busted pipes, water main breaks, or need to file a claim, the city encourages you to call 313-267-8000.