manhole cover takes out car

[low_delta]

Here's one of the weirder stories about the flooding.

Water and air pressure build-up blows off a manhole cover, which totals a woman's minivan.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=760782

The probability of driving over a sewer cover at the exact moment it launches from its hole has to be mighty slim. But then so are the odds of getting 8 or 9 inches of rain in a single weekend like we just did.

It happened to Cheri Kitoman, and it totaled her minivan.

On a trip to the grocery store, she was heading west on College Ave. at 104th St. about 9 p.m. Saturday when she heard a ka-boom. “I thought my car for whatever reason was exploding. All I could think of was for the car to stop moving so I could get out of it,” Kitoman said. The 300-pound manhole cover could not withstand the water and air pressure from the bulging sewer below.

Witnesses told Kitoman the blast lifted up the rear end of the van some five feet in the air. The right rear wheel blew clean off with part of the axle and suspension still attached. The van returned to earth, flipped around facing the opposite direction and wound up on someone’s front lawn. Steam rose from the manhole, and the flying cover came to rest in the street. Kitoman and several witnesses stood guard over the hole so no one would drive or fall into it. Hales Corners police and village workers showed up at the scene.

“Had there not been people there watching it to tell me what happened, I don’t know that I would have believed it myself,” said Kitoman, who lives in Hales Corners and works in accounting at Universal Heating & Cooling.

The round lid covered a 120-foot shaft leading down to a large Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District sewer. The cover has no vent holes, which is done to keep rainwater out of the sanitary sewer.

“The sewer gets so full, the water has to come out somewhere. It’s been happening all over,” meaning the covers flying off, said Bill Graffin, spokesman for the district.

“It’s almost like a pop-gun, or a cork coming out of a champagne bottle,” said Mike Martin, director of public works for Hales Corners.

Kitoman was wearing her seat belt, and both front air bags deployed. She was not hurt except for a few aches and pains. Remarkably, the full tank of gas was untouched, and not a single window on the van was shattered. The underbody is messed up, and the doors don’t close correctly anymore. Her insurance company, Geico, proclaimed the vehicle a total loss and already gave Kitoman a check. For the time being, she’s driving a rental pickup truck.

Kitoman mourns the loss of her van, a 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager that she purchased new and drove 170,000 miles. She named it Puffy because its first license plate began with PFY.

The story of her own name is even more interesting. When she divorced a few years ago, rather than take her maiden name back she decided instead to honor the memory of her cat, a domesticated African serval named Kito. She often called him “my little Kito man.”

She’s feeling lucky to be alive. Here she tried to be so diligent by making sure the tornado warnings were clear before leaving the house, and watching out for flooded streets.

The threat came from a direction she never expected. From below.

“And I never did make it to the grocery store,” she said.

I can only imagine where that manhole cover would have gone, if there hadn't been a car over it.

Comments

[raven-nest.livejournal.com]

We got less than an eight of an inch yesterday when I lost the limb.. and the last time it rained was the third week in May.

I am told this is typical El Nina in the deep southeast... TYPICAL.

sand is difficult, you never know what it is going to do, or when. I live in the part of GA that is all sand.. and most of the unpaved roads here are NASTY. It takes constant maintenance to maintain.. and even then you can't keep up at times.