Splashdown : ‘There We Were, Mabel, Just Driving Along 405, and Pow! The Deluge Began’

Southbound motorists on the San Diego Freeway in Huntington Beach hit a real gusher Tuesday afternoon.

Or maybe it was that the gusher hit them.

They were cruising along about 2 p.m., enjoying warm, clear weather, when a spout of water suddenly arched onto the freeway, catching the first wave of drivers unaware and drenching their cars. The hundreds behind them swerved to a standstill, then slowly resumed their progress, edging toward the center divider to avoid the spray cascading into lanes 2, 3 and 4 of Interstate 405.

The unexpected incident developed when an expansion joint on a 21-inch water line broke at the Newland Street overpass, authorities said. Some of the water poured into a flood-control canal, but the rest arched onto the freeway and spilled across all four southbound lanes, according to a California Highway Patrol dispatcher.

The broken water main was carrying water from the Orange County Metropolitan Water District to the Huntington Beach Water District, officials said. Jeff Renna, superintendent of the Huntington Beach Public Works Department, said the pipe was put in about 1955, and the rubber part of the expansion joint could have just worn out.

District employees shut off the gushing water after about 30 minutes. Repairs should be completed by Thursday, authorities said, and no one in the city was expected to be without water because of the break.