A neighborhood is dealing with a massive mess after a water main break in New Orleans. According to WVUE Fox 8 New Orleans, the Lake Terrace neighborhood is the source of the issue after a leaking pipe finally led to the full failure of the water main.
But angry homeowners say that this incident shouldn’t come as a surprise to the Sewerage and Water Board, since homeowners had previously made them aware of the issue when it was still just a small problem.
Now, the daughter of the woman whose home currently features a 10-foot-deep hole in the front yard is expressing her frustration at the way the Sewerage and Water Board handled the complaints. She believes that the situation could’ve been avoided if there was better internal communication with the agency.
The executive director of the board and a city council member both tell WDSU6 that they agree with the homeowner’s assessment, which will hopefully prompt an investigation into where the communication failure happened so that incidents like this can be avoided in the future.
The Elderly Homeowner’s Daughter Spoke Out About the Incident
Maria Stokes spoke with 4WWL about the water main break that happened in her elderly mother’s front yard, sharing her frustration with the outlet. “It was a failure on many, many levels,” Stokes said. “The attention that we’re getting today should have been here two weeks ago.”
Instead, she says the Sewerage and Water Board showed up to her mother’s house on Aug. 19 to deal with a prior complaint about the water main. They began excavating the yard to find the source of the issue, which is when they learned that the roots of a massive oak tree had grown around the water main.
Stokes says the crew then stopped their work to order the parts they would need to reroute the water main around the tree, but that never happened. Instead, she says the crew vanished until the tree collapsed around 1 a.m. on Sept 1, 2026, leaving a gaping sinkhole in the front yard.
The Water Main Break Caused a River of Water
According to 4WWL, Stokes believes that the damage that was caused by the delay could’ve been prevented, especially considering how much water poured into her mother’s yard after the initial break. “It wasn’t a leak,” she said of the incident. “It was a current. A river current.”
For its part, the Sewerage and Water Board acknowledges that residents are frustrated about what happened. The Sewerage and Water Board Executive Director Randy Hayman reportedly told WDSU that he wants to see process improvements implemented within his department when it comes to communication.
Meanwhile, New Orleans Councilman Eugene Green says he’s also looking for answers on how this leak wasn’t taken care of right after it was reported. “The goal is to make sure problems like this are fixed before they escalate,” Green told the outlet.