About 500 times a year a water main will break somewhere in the city.

Normally, such breaks are just a nuisance. A few residents lose water service for a few hours while crews dig a big hole in the street to repair the break. When it’s over, the only permanent result is a patch in the road that might settle after a while, creating a minor hazard for motorists with bad shocks.

These breaks aren’t always harmless, though.

Take the case of Brandy Torres, who lives in the 700 block of East Wayne Street. About 7 p.m. on the evening of Dec. 10 a small geyser started spewing water through the pavement in front of her home, and within minutes it had turned into a torrent.

A 12-inch water main that ran in front of Torres’ house had broken, gushing out enough water to create a river that flowed over the curb in front of her home, around her house and through her yard. The water flowed for an hour and a half before repair crews arrived, and it continued to flow for a couple of hours more before it was stopped.

At its peak, Torres said, the water flowing around her house was more than a foot deep, and it filled her basement with a foot and a half of water, ruining a new furnace and water heater, and forcing Torres and her husband, David, and their three children out of their home for two days.

According to the city’s utility department, the main that broke was a cast-iron pipe installed in the 1940s. The city has a replacement program, and it would like to replace 1 percent of the pipes each year, but it doesn’t have the money, I was told.

Torres called her insurance company, and she was assured her insurance would cover the damage, so she quickly hired a local company to replace the furnace and water heater. But then her insurance company called back. There had been a mistake. This was a flood, and she didn’t have flood insurance, so it wouldn’t cover the damage.

Torres was amazed. Why would she have flood insurance? Her house isn’t in a flood plain.

Fortunately for Torres, her insurance decided that because it initially said it would pay, it agreed to cover work that had already been performed, less her deductible, but would pay for nothing more.

The contractor she had hired quickly left.

The river that had washed around her home had washed away mortar in some of the stones that formed her foundation, Torres said, and as a result the house was beginning to settle. Cracks started appearing in the walls. Molding started popping off the walls, her front porch was starting to sink and one side of her dining room was beginning to dip.

We talked to various insurance industry groups, and the consensus was that the interpretation by Torres’ insurance company was correct. A flood is any situation where water comes from the ground up, and that would include water coming from a broken water main.

So, ultimately, who is responsible?

According to the Insurance Information Institute, one does have to ask who is liable for the damage in a case like this. There have been cases where cities have paid for damage caused by floods created by broken water mains or leaking water towers, the institute said. In a case like this, one should at least file a claim.

Which is just what Torres did. She filed a tort claim with the city shortly after the flood. Shortly after the beginning of the year, the city denied the claim.

To say the least, Torres is miffed. Just a few days after the water main broke, she said she saw a news story about how the city was spending millions of dollars on a system to treat water using ultraviolet light instead of chemicals. Meanwhile, the water mains are falling apart.

“I want to find out what I can do to protect myself,” Torres said.

Anybody can buy flood insurance, the Insurance Information Institute said, and the price might be reasonable if you are not in a flood-prone area.

With a city full of cast-iron water mains, it might be worth considering, especially if you live slightly downhill from one of those lines.