Cleanup underway after Montreal water main break floods streets and homes [Video]

A Montreal city spokesman warns it will be weeks before repairs can be completed on a major water main that broke near the Jacques Cartier Bridge on Friday, flooding dozens of buildings and leaving some 150,000 homes under a boil-water advisory.

All streets had reopened to traffic on Saturday, and an extra garbage pickup was being organized to collect the debris from the 50 homes and around 20 businesses that flooded after the pipe erupted into a dramatic geyser at around 6 a.m. the previous day.

• IN PICTURES: Massive water main break floods Montreal streets

Witnesses described the break as a “wall of water” that shot several metres into the air, forcing firefighters to ask nearby residents to evacuate due to risk of flooding.

City spokesman Philippe Sabourin said there’s a considerable cleanup operation required after the nearly two-metre wide pipe gushed water for several hours into streets, intersections and people’s basements.

“Everything exploded yesterday, including pieces of asphalt,” …