Crews work to drain water, fix broken water main

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — An entire Jacksonville Beach neighborhood was flooded Friday morning after a car crashed into a fire hydrant on 1st Street South and 9th Avenue South.

Public works crews were repairing the underground water main and draining since just before midnight Friday.

"We watched this guy walk home, down 1st Street staggering and he stumbled into the car backed up super-fast and just gunned it went across 1st Street, t-boned a truck which hit it on top of the fire hydrant," said Donnie Buffkin, witness.

"It's flooded. It looks like we had a super big rainstorm," said Casey Nolan. "I have waterfront property now. I mean it's down blocks it looks like a hurricane came through here."

The man that caused the crash and the entire neighborhood to flood did try to make a run for it; however, police caught him a short time later.

Water was restored to the neighborhood at 11 a.m. and the street is expected to reopen by late Friday afternoon, as crews were just cleaning dirt off the road.

WJAX