The Park School and 160 homes and apartments were without water for a second day yesterday as work crews worked to repair a water main that ruptured about noon Thursday at Falls and Old Court roads in Brooklandville.

Repairs to the water main were completed by late last night and water service was restored shortly thereafter, said Kurt L. Kocher, spokesman for the Baltimore Department of Public Works, which provides water to parts of the county.

Classes at the private Park School were canceled yesterday. The public works department had trucked in bottled water for residents around Falls Road.

"It's difficult, of course. You can't flush your toilets. You can't shower," said Rivin Cohen, who lives in a condominium complex on Old Court Road. Cohen said he considered getting a hotel room for the weekend until a truck driver delivering water said service could be restored sometime today.

The public works department is trying to determine what caused the lines to rupture.

The break was the second of the day in Baltimore County. A broken main was discovered at McCormick Road in Hunt Valley around 6:30 a.m. Thursday but was repaired about 24 hours later, allowing employees at nearby businesses to return to work.

Kocher said construction work near McCormick Road may have been a factor in that break.

On Nov. 9, a 20-inch water main burst on St. Paul Street in downtown Baltimore, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into two major office buildings, shutting down businesses and clogging traffic.

Kocher said that water main breaks typically increase this time of year because of changes in temperature that cause the ground to shift, putting stress on the cast-iron pipes.