Crews worked Saturday to repair a water main that burst in the morning, spewing a river of water that created a large sinkhole on Burnside Road West, damaged several homes and caused a car to roll over.

An estimated two million gallons of water was spilled — gushing with such force that it blew the garage doors off one house as it flowed to the Trans-Canada Highway.

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Hardest hit was Jeffrey Stephen’s home on Belgrave Road. Stephen woke with a start about 6 a.m. to what he thought was a torrential rainfall.

“I thought I’d never seen rain this hard. So I went out to the porch to realize it wasn’t rain, it was an eight-foot-deep river rushing through the house,” he said.

“It was as though I stepped onto the deck of a boat. [From] my second-storey deck I could reach down and be in the water.”

Though insured, Stephen lost hundreds of photos and family mementos, four motorcycles and all his tools.

It was a bitter turn for Stephen, who has been restoring the house over the past five years. He moved in only a year ago.

“I framed it and made it into a dream home and I was the labour for all of it. … Throughout the build, I’ve been broken into, I’ve been cleaned out of all of my tools. My father died halfway through the build, so it’s just been one thing after the next. You finally move in, and this happens,” he said.

Neighbour Alanna Jackson described the scene as “total chaos and devastation.”

“It was as if there was a free-flowing river going down Belgrave. I’ve got rubber boots on, but the water was up to my knees,” said Jackson, whose house was one of two on the block that escaped serious damage.

Crews from the Capital Regional District and Saanich were quickly on the scene and hoped to have the main repaired by the end of the day. Water service was restored by 5 p.m., and the intersection at Burnside Road West and Wilkinson Road was expected to reopen by 10 p.m.

Police responded to reports of flooding in the Burnside area about 6:30 a.m.

About the same time, there was a rollover on the Trans-Canada Highway.

A woman, the lone occupant in the car, was driving south when she encountered water flowing across the highway, said Saanich Police Sgt. Steve Eassie.

“The significant amount of water on the roadway caused her to lose control of the vehicle,” Eassie said. “I believe she hit a speed sign and then went across into the median and … the vehicle at some point dug in and rolled over.”

The woman was taken to hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries, he said.

On discovering the sinkhole, work crews were called and police went door to door to alert neighbours.

Twelve houses were damaged by the flooding and four were evacuated.

Emergency Social Services set up a comfort centre at St. Joseph’s Church, 785 Burnside Rd. West, for affected residents.

“Practically speaking, we’re finding that folks don’t want to leave their homes and go there,” Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard said.

Leonard said the municipality was doing everything it could to get the neighbourhood back to normal.

“We’re throwing everything we have at it. Our crews are there and there’s more on standby and CRD management are there as well.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

— Video by Alanna Jackson