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Water Main Break Floods Beacon Hill Intersection

BOSTON (CBS) -- Crews worked for hours to restore water service to roughly two dozen customers after a major water main break flooded a section of Beacon Hill Friday morning.

An eight-inch underground pipe broke around 3:30 a.m. Friday on Revere Street and flooded the intersection with Charles Street near the Charles MGH MBTA stop.

watermain break
The fire department worked on the flooded street before sunrise Friday. (WBZ-TV)

The water pushed mud and rocks onto the sidewalks near several stores and reached Storrow Drive.

Crews shut off the water and stopped the flooding around 7 a.m., which had a minor effect on Storrow Drive traffic inbound just out of the tunnel.

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The water main break at Charles and Revere streets Friday morning. (WBZ-TV)

By 8 a.m., the Fire Department had left. Crews stayed behind to clean up the mess made by the break, but cars were being allowed through.

The sidewalk in the intersection buckled and will have to be repaired--and at least one store was flooded with six to eight inches of water inside.

The owners lost some merchandise, but were grateful it wasn't worse.

The store owner's husband said it was a stressful start to the day.

"My wife actually turned on the TV and could see from a camera water gushing into our basement, so she was a little panicked sitting at home as I was flying in down the Mass Pike," Tim Ayers said. "We spent probably an hour fishing all of their bins out of the basement."

Water service has been restored to all residents. Some paving work will be completed Saturday morning.

They said about 20-24 customers on Revere Street had their water service disrupted.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports

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