Houston water main break: Stream gushing from submerged fire hydrant at intersection of Bissonnet and Morningside impacts drivers

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Water gushing from a hit fire hydrant at the intersection of Bissonnet and Morningside Wednesday morning slowed drivers and affected a nearby daycare depot.

ABC13’s Lileana Pearson was there as the parents walked through the Bissonnet mud, which looked more like a river.

All the water came from a fire hydrant that dug into the ground, pushing the water onto the road.

“I’ve never really seen that before,” Rusty Humble, who was dropping his daughter off at daycare, told ABC13.

Impacts on public water infrastructure and its repairs have been the center of controversy, especially after it was discovered that a Houston Public Works employee was receiving kickbacks from contractors.

READ MORE: Houston Public Works Admits Bribery Scandal Casts Doubt On Water Main Repair Figures Last Year

City leaders said they were concerned that the repairs being made may have been done improperly.

“It’s gotten pretty nasty here with all the water,” Humble said.

Humble said water main breaks are not a strange sight in Houston. Last week, Public Works reported just over 1,000 work requests for impacted water lines. He said he was worried about the timeline for fixing this break at Bissonnet and Morningside.

“I’m afraid it’s still going to be this way when I get home tonight, but at least at this rate I know it’s here, and I know how to park and walk,” Humble said.

Wednesday’s break had an impact on the decline in child care. A blocked road forced Humble to park in a nearby neighborhood and wade through the mud with her daughter in her arms.

“She said to me, ‘Oh, look, there’s water. I want to go splash in the puddles,’ and I said, ‘Let’s not do that in the street.’ She’s 3, so she’ll be fine,” Humble said of her toddler.

A nearby restaurant owner said a police officer asked him to check his cameras to see if a car might have hit the fire hydrant, but from the looks of it, no video was captured.

The break has been active since at least 3:30 a.m. ABC13 contacted Public Works for a timeline on when the repair should be done, and they sent the following response:

“Houston Public Works (HPW) is committed to repairing every water leak. A Houston Water inspector checked a large water leak from a toppled fire hydrant at Bissonnet and Morningside at 8 a.m. this morning. Repairs are expected to take several hours.

Houston Public Works measures open work orders for repairs. Work orders can include more than just water leaks: they also include repairs to a water main, a damaged asset, fire hydrants and non-functioning valves. There are currently nearly 1,000 open work orders. This is a downward trend from the February 25, 2024 high of 1,553 work orders.

Our team is working hard to stabilize HPW’s leak repair program and improve repair response times, the water outage notification process, and site restoration of affected areas.

Please encourage the community to report water leaks to 311 so we can track and make repairs as quickly as possible and to contact 311 if anyone notices that the reported leak has gotten worse.

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