Water main break floods several businesses in Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- A high-pressure water main break flooded several businesses along Magnolia Avenue in Riverside Monday night.

The flood waters shutdown a section of the roadway while crews worked to turn off the water.

"There is actually two lines below the street, one of the lines we were not working on we saw a failure of that line that started to take place. It started to leak, our crews got out and then it actually burst," Councilman Jim Perry said.

The water main break turned the parking lot in front of City Best Insurance Services into a lake.

"When they told me I didn't expect it to be this bad. I didn't expect it to be this big. I thought some water came into the office, something manageable. Unfortunately, it is a big mess," said Mike Hafez, owner of the business.

Hafez's business and his neighbors received several inches of water. The city sent clean-up and restoration crews to help.

"The whole shop is flooded, everything is flooded. Now, they are trying to get all the water out and they said it would take a couple days for it be back in operating mode," said Virgil Castillo, owner of Vape Castle.

It could be days before Castillo and his neighbors are able to reopen, but it could be longer for the roadway leading into their parking lot to open to traffic.

"We don't have an approximate time at this point other than it is going to be a long duration. My understanding is that some of the equipment that we need replace we also need to order and get here on site," Perry said.