On Monday about 1 p.m., Joel Dondis washed down lunch at his downtown New Orleans restaurant Grand Isle with a large glass of tap water. Several minutes later, Dondis said he received an email alert from the city warning residents that the water was unsafe to drink unless boiled. And the boil-water advisory would be in effect for 24...
On Monday about 1 p.m., Joel Dondis washed down lunch at his downtown New Orleans restaurant Grand Isle with a large glass of tap water. Several minutes later, Dondis said he received an email alert from the city warning residents that the water was unsafe to drink unless boiled. And the boil-water advisory would be in effect for 24 hours as testing was conducted.
Dondis immediately called his other businesses, Sucre, Le Petite Grocery and Joel Catering, and told them to dump the ice, serve only bottled water, and boil water before washing dishes or rinsing vegetables.
"Thank God it's a Monday," Dondis said. "If it had been a Saturday with all the tourists in town, or Sunday, imagine the Superdome. It would have been a fiasco."
Hours before Dondis received the boil-water advisory, the Sewerage & Water Board's power plant had failed, cutting power to pumps that maintain water pressure in underground lines.
If water pressure, which is normally 68 psi, falls below 15 psi, health officials advise people to boil water before using it to drink, cook or bathe. City officials said the water pressure did not drop below 20 psi, but officials with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals encouraged the city to issue the warning, said Marcia St. Martin, executive director of the S&WB.
Once the advisory went out, restaurants such as Red Fish Grill on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter contacted ice vendors to bring in additional supplies, bought cases of canned soda, boiled water for cleaning, and placed extra hand sanitizer and 5-gallon jugs of water with pumps in the bathrooms for their patrons.
"We're implementing the same plan of action that's part of our hurricane plan, all the things we learned during Katrina," Red Fish manager Suzan Hihar said.
Not everyone was so prepared. The staff at Oceana Grill on Conti Street said they hadn't heard about the water advisory except rumors from tourists that hotels were handing out bottles of water. The manager wasn't available to comment, they said.
Standing at the entrance to Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse in the Royal Sonesta Hotel, hostess Stephanie Deshotel and server Tashara Gray handed out letters to guests warning them not to use tap water. Deshotel said when she handed the letter to several people visiting Mayfield's club, they told her it was the first they were hearing about a water problem, that their hotels didn't tell them anything about it.
Greg Reggio, co-owner of Zea Rotisserie and Grill, said the loss of tap water cuts into profits because his staff has to purchase ice instead of making it themselves and sell canned soft drinks at the same price as the cheaper fountain mixes.
"We've had to deal with this before," Reggio said, referring to a similar incident in November 2010 when a boil advisory was in place for several days. "If it's once in a blue moon, you say that's just part of being in business. But if it starts happening more regularly, that's where it just drives you crazy."
What drives Dondis crazy is when he thinks about how long it took for the city to issue the warning.
Hours before the 1 p.m. advisory, a plumber installing water lines at Sucre told Dondis that the water pressure was low and he should contact the city to find out if there was a problem. Dondis said he made the call and was told it was being looked into.
"They never told me there was a problem," he said. "Why did they wait so long to warn everybody? It's a joke."