A phone call interrupted Danny Sanders’ sleep this morning.
"My alarm’s set for 6:30 and my phone rang at like 6:08, and I recognized the phone number for the police department, and I was like ‘Aw, somebody done broke into my car lot,'" he said. "But when they told me it was underwater I was like ‘Oh my gosh. Monday morning, right after a holiday week.'"
Sanders owns Sanders Auto Mart. It’s a car dealership on 4th street near Owensboro Municipal Utilities’ (OMU) Plant A, where a water main broke early Monday morning. Water poured from the break and into Sanders’ business.
“We got some squeegees and brushes, and we spent two hours pushing all the mud out as the water slowly started going down," he said. "As far as the cars, this one car right here, this blue Impala standing behind us, the water actually moved it. It was so deep that when the OMU truck drove by that car was pushed around and floated around the lot.”
He said it may take all week to clean up, and he is not sure when his lot will reopen. He is one of many affected by the flooding. Daviess County is in a state of emergency. Roads around the break have been shut down, there's a boil advisory for some Owensboro residents, and restaurants and businesses have closed.
Monday’s break is near the site of another break a few months ago. There’s no word yet from OMU about what caused the line to burst or when it might be fixed.