manhole cover takes out car

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.

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