When a contractor drilled into a water line in a South Florida city last week, more than 200,000 people in Fort Lauderdale were left without water. City officials were stumped on how to fix the problem, but repair crews came up with a quick solution.
Workers were able to keep the city's water flowing Thursday by using a tree limb as a temporary plug to prevent water from gushing out, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Workers were able to encase the pipe in concrete to stop the water from escaping.
“I thought they were very resourceful. They needed a quick fix,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told the newspaper.
"The contractor used a wooden plug from a tree," city spokesman Chaz Adams told the Sun-Sentinel.
Rob Hernandez, Fort Lauderdale's deputy city manager, told the newspaper that when wood interacts with water, it “swells up, forming a plug like a cork.”
"The pipe was in good condition other than the area around the hole," Adams told the Sun-Sentinel. "Once the wooden plug was in place, straps were wrapped around the pipe and over the plug to secure it in place."
