During a City Council meeting earlier this month, Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero critiqued the city’s response to last year’s devastating water main break in the Springwells neighborhood in Southwest Detroit.

 “We all know, and we should know as a city, that we did not do them right,” Santiago-Romero said. “We need to all be actively speaking on this so that we can bring the narrative right, so that we continue, so that we’re able to work on this together.” 

One year ago, a 54-inch water main burst in the neighborhood. During freezing temperatures, water filled the streets early in the morning of Feb. 17, affecting hundreds of residents across several blocks. Homes were damaged. Personal belongings and cars were destroyed, and many of the impacted residents were displaced.

Obstacles to a quick response

The city quickly ran into difficulties in the days following the infrastructure failure.

One of the first issues was that many residents wouldn’t answer their doors. Southwest Detroit is the home of a large immigrant population. After the election of Donald Trump, community members had been preparing neighbors for the increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This included advising people not to answer their doors.

Language also became an obstacle. When city officials who facilitated the evacuation and inspections of flooded homes needed translators, they relied on bilingual community members to volunteer to help.

That’s how Sonia Rose, a local business owner and organizer for Detroit Southwest Pride, first got involved.

More people answered their doors once trusted neighbors began to accompany city employees. But Rose said most people answered after volunteers alone started distributing meals.

“People started opening up the door cause now they’re a few days hungry,” Rose said. “So, ‘do you need anything?’ ‘Can we get you more stuff? And they’re like, you know, ‘we don’t have blankets’ … So we started to understand what people were needing very, very quickly. Like, before the city was even thinking about stuff.” 

Community fills the gaps

Almost immediately after the flooding, a network of individual volunteers, nonprofits, and businesses quickly started to organize and address blind spots in the city’s response. Volunteers on the ground were assigned specific blocks to monitor and help. There was even a community-driven database of needs created by the nonprofit Urban Neighborhood Initiatives.

Rose said without the coordinated response of the community, the situation could’ve been more dire.

“I do tribute our volunteer team, and our knowledge and what we know. We didn’t have any deaths. We didn’t have any. And there should have been.”

When the city moved people into hotels, tasks for volunteers grew. Food needed to be delivered outside of the neighborhood when people said they weren’t getting three meals at the hotel or only received junk food like hot dogs, pizza, and bologna sandwiches.

Concerns about ICE followed residents

Veronica Rodriguez was one of the volunteers making regular trips to the hotels, mostly in Southfield. She said that, while ICE was present in the Springwells neighborhood, there were many more officers around the hotels where displaced residents were being housed.

Volunteers would try to monitor ICE activity whenever they provided rides to school or work from the hotels, but many people were still afraid to leave.

“Most of them weren’t able to get their cars out of here, it was just a mess,” Rodriguez said. “The ones that could get rides from that area were scared cause it was quite away to travel for work. So many lost their jobs or they didn’t work for at least thirty days.”

Rodriguez turned down a job offer so she could assist with the response to the water main break. She described volunteering as a 24/7 task, with many who helped in the first sixty days sometimes being out as late as 10pm. Even when she got a job months later, she was still taking calls for residents seeking reimbursement from the city for damages.

“It changed their lives but it also changed mine to where you don’t trust your government,” Rodriguez said. “As much as the City of Detroit and the Water Department want to take credit for the water, the food, the donations, the meals, and all that, 85% of all that was community.”

Laura Chavez is the founder of Raices Detroit, an organization she started largely out of the response to the infrastructure failure. As another community member who was deeply involved in the volunteer efforts, Chavez offered what she believes is the most important lesson from the city’s response to the water main break:

“If community is not a part of the discussion when you’re creating an emergency response program or initiative, then you’re going to miss certain things,” said Chavez.

One year later, freezing temperatures led to more than 50 new water main breaks across the city.

Detroiters are dealing the many effects of frigid weather.  One of them is frozen infrastructure.  The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says there are more than 50 active water main breaks across the city.  The results can include impassable streets, thick ice, and cars on the street frozen in place. 

City officials say there are also 275 fire hydrants that are out of service. 

DWSD Director Gary Brown spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley about the impact of the freezing weather. 

He says the department is getting many calls from residents dealing with frozen pipes inside homes.  Brown advises them to keep the house heated and insulate pipes on outside walls to keep pipes from bursting and damaging homes. 

Additional headlines for Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026

Wayne State locked down 

Wayne State University was locked down for a couple of hours last night after a shooting in one of its residence halls.  Police say a fight between people who knew one another took place at the Chatsworth Suites, near the Student Center.  Shots were fired.  

Police were dispatched, but the people involved had already left the building  Students were advised to shelter in place as officers searched for the suspects.  A firearm was recovered.  Police determined there was no further threat to the campus community and the all-clear was given to around midnight.

No arrests have been made yet. 

Perry Johnson joins governor’s race 

Michigan businessman Perry Johnson says he’s running to become Michigan’s next governor.  The Republican announced his bid in a video earlier this week. 

“I know people say it can’t be done.  Nonsense.  We can make Michigan great again.  I’m Perry Johnson and I’m running for governor of the state of Michigan.” 

Johnson ran for governor in 2022, but his campaign did not collect enough valid signatures and failed to make the ballot.  He also ran for president in 2024.  Johnson joins the race for the Republican nomination with more than half a dozen other candidates.  The primary election takes place in August. 

Jared Goff going to Pro Bowl 

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff is going to the NFL Pro Bowl.  He will take the place of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who will be busy preparing to lead that team in the Super Bowl.  Goff finished the season with more than 45-hundred passing yards – second best in the league. 

The Lions failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021. 

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