Broken water main floods Old Town Bluffton street

Construction crews with Time Warner Cable struck a water main on Thomas Heyward Street in Bluffton late Tuesday morning, causing flooding and leaving some Old Town residents without the use of water in their homes.

The broken water main was damaged around 11 a.m.

By noon, Thomas Heyward Street was completely flooded and closed from Bridge Street to May River Road.

Water to homes along portions of Thomas Heyward and Bridge streets was shut off soon after.

By around 2 p.m., most of the water had drained from the street, and crews with Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority began working inside a large sinkhole to repair the broken main.

Charlie and Paige Criddle were watching the action Tuesday afternoon from their property near the corner of Thomas Heyward and Bridge streets.

While they weren’t home when the water main broke, they arrived soon after to find their “front lawn was a swimming pool,” Paige Criddle said.

Charlie Criddle — despite not having the ability to turn on a faucet in his home — was looking on the bright side.

“I like the road being closed; there’s no traffic,” he joked.

Bluffton and the water authority had estimated that water service would be restored around 5 p.m.

Officials were not available for comment late Tuesday.

Crews with Time Warner Cable have been working in Bluffton since early June.

They are “installing infrastructure in order to provide video, internet and phone service to local homes and businesses,” according to a Bluffton news release.

Time Warner Cable spokesman Patrick Paterno said Tuesday afternoon that the company’s policy is to request that underground utilities are marked before cable installation begins to help avoid situations such as Tuesday’s water main break.

The company “will investigate what happened,” he said.

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Broken water main floods Old Town Bluffton street."