Thursday, 4:30 PM
A hole lot of trouble in East Boston street collapse
By John M. Guilfoil and Danielle Capalbo, Globe Correspondents
A section of roadway in East Boston collapsed yesterday afternoon during a torrential rainstorm, swallowing one man's car.
A ruptured storm drain caused the incident, said Thomas Bagley, a spokesman for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.
Matt Houle said he saw the section of Orient Avenue where he lives collapsing at about 4 p.m. and jumped in his car to try to save it. Then he felt the street caving in under him.
"I saw the street starting to buckle," said Houle, whose Volkswagen tipped forward into the hole, sinking about four feet beneath the street.
"Boom!" he said. "It just got sucked in."
The 36-year-old climbed out of his car without injury and watched it slowly sink for about a half-hour before a tow truck arrived.
According to Houle, the hole grew to about five feet in depth over the course of two hours, and water gushed onto the street from the ruptured sewer.
