By Tara McLoughlin, Staff Writer
Tampa Bay’s boil water alert leaves homeowners, restaurants, and bars struggling.
According to nbcnews.com, on Feb. 22, a power failure occurred that disturbed the City of Tampa David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility. The power problem resulted in low water pressure or a loss of water service for all customers. Officials reacted to this by issuing a temporary water advisory notice.
The water advisory caused chaos within the Tampa Bay area, as many water customers hurried to prepare for the event. Homeowners, restaurant employees, and bar employees were all rushing out for water bottles and ice. Some students experienced the chaos first hand. Senior Heather Gick was at a restaurant in downtown Soho during the water advisory. When asked how the water advisory changed her night life experience, she said it definitely put a damper on the night.
“I was so thirsty. I ordered a diet coke and it was disgusting. I could barely drink it because it was so warm. I would have enjoyed my meal more if there were cold drinks and ice,” she said.
Unfortunately, Gick said that the employees at the restaurant were all rushing out to try and find ice. She was unable to receive any ice during her time at the restaurant. She explained that when they finally did get ice, it was used to chill the water, soda cans, and liquor.
Graduate Jackie Carroll lives and takes graduate school classes in the Tampa Bay area. She said that the water advisory had a major impact on the area. She explained that she had a hard time dealing with it herself
“It was an extreme inconvenience to have to brush my teeth and cook with bottled water since people were getting sick left and right,” she said.
Carroll, who is also a CVS shift manager, explained that her store had a lot of traffic after the notice was issued.
“I work at CVS and within the first two hours all of the 24 packs, gallons, and large packages of water were sold out. We had 10 pallets of 72 cases of water on each pallet, and all of it was sold out,” she said.
The water advisory notice was lifted on Sunday, Feb. 24, after the water was sampled and approved for use. So those water customers have been able to get back to their day to day routine without an issue.
