Boil water advisory lifted for local tourist destination

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — UPDATE: Boil water advisory for Senoia was lifted on Saturday Jan. 12

ORIGINAL STORY:

More than 24 hours after a broken water main was repaired, businesses in downtown Senoia are still being forced to boil their water.

The staff at Senoia Coffee and Café told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach they were forced to boil water and use paper plates and plastic utensils to do what they could for customers.

"We lost a few this morning when they found out they had to wait about 30 minutes for a cup of coffee," coffee shop owner April Anderson said.

The café was forced to make its coffee the old-fashion way, drip by drip. But regulars didn’t seem to mind.

"Came in today said it would be about 20 minutes because the water was out, espresso machine was out," customer Angelo Henderson told Gehlbach. "It was worth the wait. Well worth the wait."

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The water was cut off to customers after a water main break on Main Street. Crews got the pipe fixed and water pressure was restored overnight.

But a boil water advisory is in affect for most of the city and half the road remains closed through downtown.

That area fills up with tourists to check out the popular filming location and nearby sets and studios for the show "The Walking Dead."

Gehlbach talked to the city manager and public works director Friday. They told him it was construction on the water main near City Hall that caused a valve to burst down the block.

It had nothing to do with zombies, like someone suggested to Gehlbach online. Town said the pipes are old, dating back to the 1930s.

"Was just water running down the street as far as I could see in front of us. But they had people working on it right away," an employee at Senoia bicycles told Gehlbach.

"No water to clean dishes and using purified water to make pour-over coffees and can't use brewers since they're hooked into the mail water lines, so have to drain all our ice machines, can't serve soda," Anderson said.

The coffee shop and restaurant canceled their first dinner service planned for Friday night.

Anderson said they'll stay open through the weekend.

"We're making minor adjustments because we don't want to shut down and the tourists not have places to go, so we'll be here," Anderson said.

The city says crews will have to repave the section of Main Street that was torn up and will be testing the water with hopes of lifting the boil water advisory by the weekend.

Cox Media Group