News 12 First at Five, September 9, 2010

AUGUSTA, Ga.---The clean up has begun as crews work to fix the large hole in the road caused by a natural gas leak on Wednesday. Crews laying cable have been blamed for hitting the gas line that took emergency responders a few hours to fully contain.

Walton Way Extension, between Jackson Road and Wheeler Road, are still closed.

Many employees say thanks to the gas leak and evacuation, Wednesday was not a typical day at work... but Thursday it was all about moving forward.

The video shows the first look at the hole left behind from Wednesday's ruptured gas line.

Lorraine Bennett works at The Retina Eye Center, which is just feet away from where the gas was spraying into the air.

"It was very scary actually. We didn't know what to expect," says Lorraine.

Lorraine, her staff and all the patients were immediately forced to evacuate.

"It looked like a cloud of dust just pouring out of the concrete," describes Lorraine.

Thursday, it's back to business but not without a little left over excitement.

"It's very busy, we have had multiple calls this morning people asking if we're open, is it okay, is it safe?" Says Lorraine.

Lorraine feels emergency crews could have done a better job communicating to the people in the area.

"Maybe they'll be more prepared next time to notify people in this area or people traveling in motor vehicles," she adds.

She says there were times where she and her co-workers had more questions, than answers.

"There were people driving around, but they asked us not to start our cars and drive because it could cause an explosion," says Lorraine.

The busy road will be closed for about two weeks while crews fix the damage. Thursday, several businesses on the street closed up shop since no customers could get to them.

"You can't hardly even get out of here, the traffic is just backed up bumper to bumper all day long through here... so I assume it has had a lot of affect on the local businesses in this area," says Lorraine.

Lorraine says all they can do now is just wait out the traffic headache.

"I don't know what the future's gonna hold for the next few days, next few weeks or however long it's going to take to get this fixed, but we'll just do the best we can. Everybody's safe, that's the main thing," she says.

Augusta City Administrator Fred Russell says he was pleased with the emergency response Wednesday. He said the crews did an excellent job of sealing the leak and keeping everyone safe.

Russell says they did their best to communicate any information to the public, even though emergency management never contacted the media.

Augusta's EMA director Chief Howard Willis wears two hats, he's also Augusta's fire chief. Russell says he doesn't believe that slows the emergency response.