(CNN) A water main break Thursday sent water flowing nearly two miles away, submerging some freeways, streets and even cars in east Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
“Water covering a part of the main lanes causing people to sit on the roofs of their cars,” Gonzalez tweeted. All occupants are now out, he said.
The massive flooding caused “major traffic backups,” Gonzalez said, as State Highway (was shut down at Interstate) .
“This is a cluster, but we will get it worked out,” he tweeted at one point.
Blaming aging infrastructure for the incident, Mayor Sylvester Turner said the – inch water main was 
years old. Private contractors were working on it when it burst.
The main provides as much as % of the city’s water, Turner said at a news conference.
The city probably will be under an order to boil water for 50 hours, Turner said. Restaurants with no water pressure will have to close immediately.
It may take up to eight hours to fix the broken water main, Turner said. Gonzalez tweeted Thursday afternoon that it will take six to eight hours for the water to drain, and then repairs will be made.
High water covered the 780 East Loop, CNN affiliate KPRC reported .
The water main broke near. Fidelity and North Carolina streets and “water flowed to 780 South / Ship Channel Bridge” about two miles south of the break, near the Buffalo Bayou, Gonzalez said.
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