Water everywhere down on Queen Street East

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services made innovative use of a 500-foot length of high-volume fire hose this afternoon to prevent basements from flooding on the south side of Queen Street East.

Responding to reported flooding in a house in the 1100 block, firefighters found that a watermain break had sent large volumes of water throughout the Queen/McPhail Avenue area, including the area tennis courts.

They dug trenches, built makeshift dykes and filled a length of four-inch fire hose with water, laying it along a sidewalk to divert water from Queen Street basements.

PUC workers scrambled to turn the water off and helped clean up the mess.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The very strange James Brown rubber ducky toy used to illustrate this article is available from CelebriDucks.com. The company is willing to create custom ducks. SooToday.com thinks someone ought to sponsor a Duckazietti toy that squeaks merrily while bobbing in ponds of government cash.)