Jesse A. Millard

The Republic | azcentral.com

​Tempe officials used a crane to pull a bus out of a sinkhole after a water main broke Wednesday morning near Apache Boulevard and McClintock Drive.

The crane arrived around 4 p.m. after two attempts to remove the bus with tow trucks failed. The crane latched around the vehicle's back tires and pulled it out of the hole about an hour later.

The bus, with 12 people on board, was traveling northbound on McClintock late Wednesday morning, when the driver noticed water on the street, said Lt. Mike Pooley, a Tempe police spokesman.

The water then caused a sinkhole in the road and the back right side of the bus fell into the hole, he said.

The passengers and the driver evacuated the bus through the side windows, Pooley said.

One woman reported injuries and was examined by firefighters on location.

No other injuries were reported.

The break and the flooding forced authorities to close the northbound and southbound lanes of McClintock Drive between Don Carlos Avenue and Broadway Road, Pooley said. The southbound lane is expected to reopen later tonight, said Amanda Nelson, a Tempe Public Works spokeswoman.

Nelson said contractors assessing damages didn't know when officials could reopen the northbound lane.

The cause of the break has not been determined, though it is most likely due to the age of the infrastructure, Pooley said.

"We don't know how far that hole goes or the extent of the damages," he said. "We have to move that bus out of the way to get a good look."

The water has been shut off in the area in order to control the flooding. By early Wednesday afternoon, water had flooded down Lemon Street and into the front yards of several homes.

Tanner Herring rents a home nearby and said water started coming into the property by 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The flood waters reached Herring's front and backyard, the garage and partially through his doorway.

Herring and his roommates set up barricades of towels and cinder blocks to keep the water from reaching into his home.