New London — Although the water main that broke on Saturday has been fixed, two roads remained closed Monday, leaving the nearby St. James Episcopal Church with little choice but to cancel its Tuesday food pantry and thrift shop hours.

Crews responded to the break near Federal and Huntington streets around noon on Saturday and fully restored water to the area about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, New London Public Utilities Director Joseph Lanzafame said.

Lanzafame said city workers were aware of the break even before they knew where it had occurred, thanks to consistent monitoring of the levels of the city’s storage tanks. They quickly learned where it was when calls about water pouring out of Huntington Street came in.

He said isolating the break and slowing the water flow wasn’t an easy task.

As often happens with older infrastructure, Lanzafame said the first set of valves crews used to shut off water in the area didn’t function at 100 percent.

Because of that, crews were forced to move farther back, expanding the area that was without water during the repair operation.

Workers also have to be more diligent with downtown breaks because of nearby gas mains, he added.

At varying points of the day, Lanzafame said water customers from Tony D’s Restaurant to the Huntington Street bridge that crosses over Eugene O’Neill Drive and Water Street were affected.

Thanks to the fire department and Veolia Water, the city's water utility, Tony D’s was able to pull water from a nearby hydrant for much of the day Saturday.

Lanzafame said city officials haven’t yet determined how much water spilled during the break or at what rate it was pouring out.

He said it was a 12-inch pipe whose side blew out. An analysis is being done to find out why the pipe broke. 

On Monday, crews were working to repave Huntington Street, which was damaged as a result of the break. Lanzafame said work there likely will finish up Monday evening or Tuesday morning, at which point crews will proceed to Federal Street.

Lanzafame said there was “quite a bit of damage” to Federal Street because the slope there allowed water to get underneath the pavement and lift it up.

He said both roads may be back to normal within two days and definitely will be by the end of the week.

Lanzafame said St. James Episcopal Church's basement sustained water damage. It was the only building in the area that was damaged.

According to Dorothy Sieburg, senior warden of the parish at St. James, the water was about ankle-deep at its peak.

So far, church members have only had to throw out some rugs and some books as a result of the flooding in the basement, which houses a low-cost thrift shop featuring gently-used clothing, housewares, jewelry and other accessories.

She said church officials are hoping the affected book cases will dry out well and remain usable.

Located in the church’s basement since 1968, the Jumble Shoppe will miss its Tuesday hours — typically 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. — as church members continue to clean up the area.

Sieburg said the church also is planning to bring in a structural engineer to check out the walls in the church’s crypt.

“They’re very old and they got very wet,” Sieburg said.

The shop should reopen for regular business hours Saturday.

The church also will not open The Lord’s Pantry this week, in part because of the sidewalk and street closures in the area. The food pantry usually is open 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays.

Sieburg thanked New London firefighters who used their equipment to pump water out of the church’s basement before the city’s cleanup contractor made it to the scene.

“They were incredibly helpful,” she said.

Lanzafame said city officials check after every break to see whether there have been other similar breaks in the area, which would indicate the entire water line may need to be replaced.

He said that doesn’t appear to be the case with this break, although crews at some point may go back and fix the valves that didn’t work for them.

“At this point it doesn’t look like there’s a pattern in that area,” Lanzafame said. “The water line is all set up and good to go.”

l.boyle@theday.com