Milwaukee Pizzeria Flooded With Business After Water Main Break

MILWAUKEE, WI—A water main break near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee stopped traffic for several hours. But, to the liking of Sal’s Pizza along North Oakland Avenue, it also drew quite a crowd of onlookers. And they got hungry.

Ian Tousey, the manager of the pizzeria, said people walked by the restaurant, watching a flood that rose from the intersection of Oakland and Linnwood avenues about 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and continued past the noon lunch hour.

“We’re normally really busy,” Tousey said. “It got even busier today. We had a bunch of people who were filming it, and then they stopped in for a slice.”

Tousey said that when he first noticed the gushing water flooding the intersection outside his restaurant, he thought it was a busted fire hydrant. Turns out, it was break in the water main. That pipe, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, was installed in 1936.

“The water just kept rising,” Tousey said of the flood that filled the intersection. “If it would have risen another inch, (the water) would have come into the store.”

Pictures posted on Twitter indicate just how bad it got.

The intersection will be closed for a few days while the city repairs the water main, according to the Journal-Sentinel. That’s not bad news for Tousey, who says he expects business to be exceptionally good as city workers will stop by for pizza.

Image by Google Street View