A major water main under MacArthur Boulevard just west of Q Street ruptured midday Wednesday, turning the road into a river, flooding some dwellings and leaving a gaping hole in the pavement. Repairs remained underway late Thursday night and the road around the site was closed.

In the early minutes of the break, as the errant water bored away at the sediment holding up the road and boiled upward, conditions on the surface turned tenuous.

Guitar teacher and actor Michael Alban was just returning to his home in the building on the north side of the break point after taking his girlfriend to the airport. Her car, an old Volvo, was parked on the road and water was rising toward the bottom edge of the door.

RIVER ROAD: Water from a broken 30-inch main pipe under MacArthur Boulevard bubbles and swirls on Wednesday as it heads east past parked cars. Photo Credit: Michael Alban

“She would have given me all kinds of hell if I didn’t get it out of there. So, I was like, do I risk it?” he said, with a smile, adding that he took the chance and managed to save the car.

Alban said DC Water’s mobile command center, a heavy truck outfitted with communications equipment, had its own narrow escape. He said the truck was passing along the road just as the road started to collapse. The back of the truck got stuck on a pavement break. “He managed to get it over the lip and floored it,” Alban said.

POST DELUGE: Crews work on repairs at the site of a water main rupture Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at the east end of MacArthur Boulevard, just west of Q Street. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

Shooter Starr heard about the break at work and rushed toward his home about 1:30 p.m.

He was forced to leave his car on higher ground near Hardy Park, grab a pair of boots from the trunk and then ford the boulevard on foot. He followed the water flow south along Q Street and then down around the corner of Clark Place to reach his house.

Two people were already at the top of his driveway piling up barriers in an attempt to divert the water. He added a slab of concrete. But the water made it into his basement anyway, he said.

“It was a river right where we’re standing,” Starr said outside his house about 8 p.m., with DC Water crews still working to clean up the area.

RAPIDS: Water from a main pipe break on MacArthur Boulevard flows south on Q Street. Photo Credit: Shooter Starr

Starr praised their response and a visit by a Mayor Muriel Bowser representative to check on conditions. Crews with backhoes, dump trucks and street sweepers were moving rapidly to clear piles of debris and mud that still edged up against some corners and cars late Wednesday.

The lower and middle school campus of Georgetown Day School, with 575 students and located at the bottom of Q Street, was closed on Thursday. Metro buses were being rerouted.

What caused the break was not immediately known. The 30-inch cast iron pipe is from the 1860s and the water flows under pressure, according to Vince Morris, a DC Water spokesman. He said interrupted water service to area customers was restored quickly. It was unclear when use of the road would return to normal. (See, MacArthur Water Main Break: Day 4)

From 2013 to May 2017, nine water main breaks have occurred along MacArthur Boulevard, between Newark Street and Foxhall Road, according to DC Water data, including one at the Foxhall intersection, dated May 19, 2017. Other breaks occurred on side streets along the route.

NIGHT SHIFT: Crews work Thursday night to prepare to install a new section of pipe at the site of Wednesday’s water main break. Photo Credit: John A. Bray