Kim Szczatko woke up in the middle of the night and rushed to her gift shop, Cooper’s Corner, in downtown Wrangell Wednesday night. About an inch of water and mud had flooded the space from back to front.
“It came from the utility room in the bathroom, because the water was coming up and rushing over the top,” she said. “So it came from there, flooded the entire storeroom area, and then came out into the storefront and then out the front door.”
A water main in Cow Alley — right behind her shop on Front Street — had broken around midnight. Public Works Director Tom Wetor said it’s one of the deteriorating asbestos water mains that make up 9% of the borough’s water system.
“It was a three to four foot section that had blown out of it,” he said. “That’s why things were flowing the way that they were there.”
Wetor said his team shut off the water immediately after being notified and returned at daylight to make repairs. By afternoon, the crew had replaced the broken asbestos section with ductile iron pipe.
Not one, not two, but three water issues
But the water main wasn’t the only issue Public Works faced that day.
A service connection also broke just south of the Public Safety Building on Zimovia Highway. Additionally, a resident reported what appeared to be a third incident — a settled storm drain in a downtown parking lot near City Hall. Public Works dug it up and fixed it the following day.
“When it rains, it pours, to have three reports of a water main break or something like that, basically all on the same day,” Wetor said. “We were running around yesterday, just doing our best to keep up.”
Back at Cooper’s Corner, Szczatko was still assessing the damage. She’s waiting to see whether the water and mud harmed any of her wooden furniture before deciding whether to file an insurance claim.
“If you claim the insurance, then your insurance goes up,” she said. “So if it’s not a significant number, you don’t want to do that.”
She said incidents like this come with the territory of old infrastructure, but puts it in perspective compared to natural disasters, like hurricanes.
“I’m optimistic and resilient,” Szczatko said.
Public Works Director Tom Wetor said some residents have reported brown water coming from their taps. He advises running the water until it clears, and contacting Public Works if the problem persists.
