According to Bogalusa Public Works Director James Hall, an unknown motorist struck a fire hydrant Friday morning, causing flooding and, for area residents, a loss of water.

Hall said he got a call around 6:50 a.m. that a car hit a fire hydrant on South Columbia and Seventh Street. He said the city couldn’t reattach the fireplug, so city workers had no choice but to shut off water in the area.

“Now we got the water off from Hickory to East Sixth St. to replace the fire plug,” he said.

As of noon Friday, the water was still shut off, and Hall explained it likely wouldn’t return until the late afternoon, though he couldn’t give a firm estimate because he didn’t know what sort of fire hydrant adaptor workers might need.

“It depends,” he said. “You don’t know what kind of adaptor you got to hook to. This was an original fire hydrant.”

He said the city might have to machine something original.

“It’s a process,” he said. “Once you get the water off and the hole pumped out and drained out, then you got to see what you need from there.”

Hall said whoever hit the plug drove off, though he’s hopeful the driver or a witness will do the right thing and come forward.

“We got to collect on insurance,” he said. “If you know anything, please call the police department, so we can get some insurance money from it.”