Schools were closed and homes were left without water on Monday after a burst water pipe caused major flooding in Altrincham. Homeowners in the WA15 postcode area were left with no water or low pressured water, with many roads left completely flooded in the early hours of the morning.
Throughout Monday (November 21), United Utilities remained at the site of the burst, at the junction of Wellington Road and Stockport Road. It was first reported shortly after midnight, with the area quickly flooding, with water up to knee level in some areas, causing chaos for drivers on the early morning commute.
In a video clip shared with the Manchester Evening News , cars can be seen wading through the waterlogged streets. Pictures showed bins floating around and cars stranded. A number of roads in the Timperley area, including Woodlands Parkway and Wellington Road, were severely impacted throughout the day.
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United Utilities have continued to provide updates online, announcing that they used water tankers to keep water flowing to people's homes. Water was also re-zoned from other parts of the network, with priority customers also being delivered bottles of water. As of 6pm on Monday night, works to repair the burst pipe were continuing with some homes still cut off.
It is not known exactly how many homes were left without any water supply, but United Utilities said that many had reported either no running water or extremely low pressures. Others took to social media to complain about their loss of water, with others even booking themselves into a hotel overnight and abandoning their homes. According to the latest update, works will continue on the burst pipe late into Monday evening.
Wellington School was closed, as was Altrincham College, which apologised to parents for the inconvenience after it was forced to shut its doors. A statement on their website on Monday evening by the headteacher said: "We have been informed by Trafford Council that water should be on again by midnight tonight. School will therefore be open tomorrow.
"If I hear anything to the contrary, I will inform you immediately via email and the school website. Thank you for your support and apologies for any inconvenience caused by the closure of school."
Local resident Phil Steward told the M.E.N: "By dinner time there was no water at all. It's very sporadic at the moment, they have water tankers plugged into the mains network but they are dotted around places but they cant meet the demand from all the homes.
"It's been coming and going since then, and varies from no flow at all to something like a dreary hose pipe on summers day. There is a lot of surface water on the roads but hard to tell how much of that is from the pipes or the rain we've seen."
In the latest update at 6pm, United Utilities said: "We’re really sorry for the inconvenience caused by the burst on the junction of Wellington Road and Stockport Road. The repair is well underway, and once complete we will then need to re-fill the main with water before it can come back into supply.
"Our water tankers will continue to pump extra water into the mains to help keep as many customers on supply as possible, whilst we are completing the necessary work. During peak times of the day you may notice fluctuations to your pressure, we are keeping a close eye on this and hope to have things back to normal as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding, we really appreciate it!"
Read more of today's stop stories here.
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