A watermain break in Seminole last week could have had devastating consequences had crews not responded quickly, City Manager Steve Saxon said.

Early Thursday morning, a section of line ruptured at the intersection of Strother and Milt Phillips, which, according to Saxon, threatened to drain the Highland Water Tower and jeopardized fiberoptic communications. Traffic was detoured for several hours as crews made repairs.

“We also had a valve failure on the other side of the same intersection which would have relieved the pressure on that line,” Saxon said. “On top of all of that our crews were navigating around massive fiber optics lines that would have put thousands without communications if it had been cut. Even though it was not convenient for citizens, it was remarkable how all of our city employees rallied together to accomplish something quite extraordinary.”

Thursday evening, Saxon sent the following text message the water line crew, the street crew, line replacement crew, parks crew and police:

“Please pass along a loud round of applause to our men and women who pulled off the impossible today. I cannot put into words how proud I am of the response to the water main break at the busiest intersection in Seminole. I can name dozens of towns bigger than Seminole that would have been paralyzed until a contractor came in to save the day. But our team never once flinched at the job put in front of them. I have seen with my own eyes, well trained experienced crews from larger cities take days to do what you all did in hours. I am just about in disbelief. I could not be more grateful and humbled to work with this “A-team”. Our citizens may not know how much impact you just had on the businesses, water pressure and convenience, but just know that they are extremely thankful for all you do.”