Water line ruptures in Cupertino neighborhood, flooding several homes

CUPERTINO, Calif. (KGO) — A ruptured pipeline gushed water out and into several homes in Cupertino.

Santa Clara County fire said they responded to a water line break off Scenic Boulevard just before 10 a.m. Friday.

Jo Bastow lives up the street.

“Just saw the whole street was flooded I was just like oh my god, what’s going on,” Bastow said.

We spoke to Yuheng Kuang who just came from work – he was still assessing the damage.

“I think the whole floor has been flooded – so I think the floor is just like all damaged. The furniture for sure, a lot of the wood furniture for sure,” Kuang said.

San Jose Water Company operates the water line, the City of Cupertino owns it. A representative with the San Jose Water said a contractor had been working in the area and hit the waterline. John Tang, VP of Regulator Affairs, explained what usually happens when work is done by their company or any other utility.

“They actually have to conduct what’s called an underground service alert where utilities like ours will come out and mark lines so that when they do come out here and dig, they still clear of those marked locations. Why our pipeline got hit we’re still in the investigation phase of that,” Tang said.

Yuheng Kuang said his family will stay at a hotel for the next few days.

“It is certainly smelly inside. So we don’t want to live in this situation for now,” Kuang said.

On Friday afternoon, cleanup efforts continued.

SKY7 video shows just how far water reached within the quart. Out of an abundance of caution, San Jose Water issued a boil advisory.

“Our pipelines are pressurized and so when something like this happens and you lose pressure in the lines, things that are out of the pipe can actually make its way into the pipe,” Tang said.

They left packs of water bottles outside impacted homes.