CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – Montgomery County officials thanked the public for their patience Monday as a boil water notice is expected to continue into the weekend.
Crews are continuing to flush water lines and disinfect water tanks so final samples can be taken.
In the meantime, restaurants are feeling the strain.
“It’s been hard, it’s been a challenge,” said Stuart Arbuckle, owner of Pizza Inn in Christiansburg. “We were closed two days, so we lost two days altogether. We are fortunate to have good customers, so we’re holding our own.”
The impact isn’t just two days of lost business, it’s also added expenses for bottled water and bags of ice. Restaurants can’t serve tap water or fountain drinks. Water used for cooking must be boiled.
“We started finding water so we can make our dough, make our sauce, boiling water to make tea,” Arburckle said.
Since machines can’t be used, Arbuckle’s team is making tea the old-fashioned way by boiling and cooling.
“We’ve even implemented our tea running exercise program, that’s where you get the tea and get it to the cooler as fast as you can and come get another one so we can get cold tea,” he said. “We’re trying to make fun of it. We’re doing the best we can.”
The boil water notice is also affecting two Macodo’s locations in Montgomery County.
Kevin Clark, director of operations for the chain, told 10 News safety is top of mind but so is keeping employees on the job after closures due to Helene’s effects.
“We’re fully compliant. We just want to make sure that people feel safe,” Clark said. “The biggest thing is to make sure that everybody who’s losing wages and things that are devastated by this are able to come back to work.”
Arbuckle said his team is taking the situation day by day but hopes the strain of buying and boiling water ends soon.
Samples tested by the New River Valley Regional Water Authority continue to show an absence of bacteria, but it will be days before the process to flush lines and disinfect tanks will be completed.