Little evidence remains of the almost 350,000 gallons of water that gushed from a broken main onto lawns and streets Monday night in the 600 block of North Annie Glidden Road.

The ground was firm, not soggy, Tuesday. Two barricades marked the gravel that replaced three sections of sidewalk.

Bryan Faivre, DeKalb’s assistant director of public works, said that he could not explain why a 10-inch main blew a hole 12 to 18 inches wide in its side.

Faivre said the fairly large main was made of cast iron and probably weakened because of age.

“There is no good explanation as to why this one occurred, except that it was an older pipe,” he said.

Water mains range in size from four to 16 inches in diameter. Newer mains are made of a much stronger ductile pipe, Faivre said.

Water resource workers were on the scene within 10 minutes of the break just after 10 p.m. Five workers labored until 5:30 a.m. to replace a three-foot section of pipe.

“Luckily, the break occurred late at night when water usage is low,” Faivre said.

Water resources workers “valved down” the main, essentially cutting off the water supply to the section of pipe, Faivre said.

Residents in the 600 block of North Annie Glidden Road were without water for several hours late Monday night and into early Tuesday morning.

Maya Wilk-Siuba, of DeKalb, said no one notified her that the water would be shut off.

Noisy repairs awakened Wilk-Siuba around 4 a.m., she said.

“It was a nuisance,” she said.

DeKalb’s water resources division handles about 60 to 70 water main breaks a year. Faivre said the division only handles about two to three each year on the scale of Monday night’s break.