Water

Wichita Police and the Exploited & Missing Child Unit are investigating after a five-year-old girl suffers second-degree burns. The girl was in the care of a family member in Southwest Wichita on Saturday. Police say he was holding a pot of boiling water as he was scolding her for taking food into the living room. Police say he then poured the boiling water on the girl, causing burns to her back, arms and face. The girl's father showed up at the home later and discovered the injuries.

There will be no school for grades 6-12 at the Peabody-Burns school on Monday due to a water main break at the junior and senior High School. All staff is still required to report and no evening activities are affected. Officials with the school say the building was damaged by the water main break Sunday morning.  

A water main break has prompted crews to shut down Pawnee between Pershing and Terrace. Drivers are asked to avoid the area until they can get the situation under control. The road is expected to be close for most of Friday afternoon.

Crews had a busy morning dealing with a water main break at I-135 and Kellogg.  It happened just south of Kellogg, spewing water all over the roadway. Officials say a crew was running a trenching machine to clear out a line that was previuosly dug, but went a little too deep. Water was shut off to the main, and crews were able to repair the damage.  No customers were affected.

Drivers in the Delano neighborhood in Wichita will have to put up with a detour for a while. Monday, crews will close eastbound Douglas St. at Seneca to repair a water main break and damage to the pavement. According to City of Wichita officials, the detour will take eastbound traffic to Seneca, south to Maple, east to Sycamore and back north to Douglas again, east of the repair site. The city says, access to businesses in the Historic Delano area on Douglas will be maintained.

This summer has been so dry, most ponds and watering holes are nearly dried up. "I've never seen anything this dry," said equipment operator Erich Heimer. No water means thirsty cows and other livestock, that's why these guys are hard at work; digging deeper, trying to find more water. "It's been busy all summer, we've had one guy on pond work all summer and sometimes all four of us," Heimer said. Theis Dozer Service Inc. has had a record summer, busier than ever before.

Winter usually means not having to worry much about your trees, lawns and gardens.  But the prolonged drought means taking a more active role now, to make sure your plants bounce back in the spring. If can be difficult to tell if dormant trees and grass are stressed and not getting enough water.  Eric Denneler with Tree Top Nursery says that means paying attention to the weather and watering.  "Probably the biggest thing to consider is how recently was your plant planted.

Update: The Courtyard Marriott in Old Town plans to reopen Friday afternoon. Workers had to replace wet carpet and finish repairs after a water main break closed the hotel on Wednesday. The hotel near Second and Washington was evacuated after the break knocked out power, smashed a window, and flooded the hotel's basement. More than 100 people were moved to other hotels in the area. The water main break sent rocks through a window where a guest was sleeping.

Cell phone video shows what Susan Jones woke-up to Monday morning. "My neighbor rang the doorbell about 7:30, he was outside.  And, said, there's water coming up,” Jones said. Water was bubbling to the surface from a pipe that had broken... several feet below. "I called the city, had somebody come straight out.  But they said there was a lot of problems like this,” Jones said. Factfinder12 checked with the city of Wichita.  Right now, it's working on 34 water main breaks and leaks.  The city prioritizes which breaks get fixed first, based on how many customers it affects, if it's causing damage, and if it's impacting traffic.