UCLA Campus Floods as Water Main Bursts

Nearly a century old water main burst in the UCLA campus, submerging parts of it and surrounding areas in  gallons of water, Tuesday.

The 30-inch pipe ruptured around 3; 30 pm, stranding people and vehicles in the water. It took more than four hours of hard by city fire workers to rescue five people. The pipe spewed millions of gallons of water.

Around  150 firefighters were deployed to get over  200 vehicles out of  the flooded areas. Brian Humphrey, the fire department spokesman said that when people saw water flowing into the underground parking of the campus they rushed to rescue the cars but many got stranded in the parking. No injuries have been reported, media reports.

The city authorities said shutting off th e water supply was a ann onerous task requiring some time. Jim McDaniel, the assistant director of the city's water and power department, said three different valves need to be turned off and certain times to prevent damaging the high-pressure main, reports the New York Daily News. The repair work is expected to run over night.

The burst water over ran many complexes of the UCLA  campus. The Pauley Pavilion, which saw a renovation worth $136 million  two years ago, was under several inches of water. Two buildings and the parking structure were also damaged .

" The water will be removed from the floor tonight, we will then reassess the situation tomorrow morning and be able to provide additional information at the appropriate time." said UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, reports  yahoosports.com.

The city department of water and power says half-a-billion gallons of water per day is released to the city, the estimated amount of water that poured out of the pipe would be around 75,000 gallon per minute, according to the New York Daily News.

The officials are yet to estimate the cost of repairs  to the damage done.