Glenda Hopkins walked the perimeter of the East Linn Museum and studied every wall of the interior with her ears, trying to identify the strange noise that seemed to emanate from everywhere.
She was volunteering her time at the museum on Long Street, a rather quiet place when visitors are not present, when she first noticed the persistent sound.
It sounded similar to running water, but she couldn’t find anything that could provide a decent answer to the mystery. Even the floor seemed to have a slight vibration to it.
It was afternoon on Thursday, Feb. 5.
Not long later, Shawnee Conley walked toward the museum, saying rust-colored water was coming from her faucets.
Her home is situated across the street and about three houses down from the museum.
“It just started vibrating in the house,” Conley said about the first indication that something was wrong.
She turned her electrical breaker off, but that didn’t stop the noisy vibrations. Then she noticed the colorful water.
In fact, several houses on that block reported experiencing vibrations.
It was easy for city staff to figure out what happened.
By the time they arrived, water appeared to be soaking the curbside of the road across from the museum and draining toward Holley Road where cars created a whizzing sound as they drove through the water.
Wes Glenn, public works employee, gave the answer in three words: water main break.
It took city staff only a few minutes to identify the location of the leak using sounders (listening devices) across from the museum, and a couple of hours to cut through the road to access the break for a repair.