Massive water main break leaves city without clean water

Reporter: Annalise Iraola
Published: Updated:
CREDIT: NATASHA-HUGO VARGAS

LaBelle’s water shutdown impacted people and businesses, but Two Peas Cafe lucked out.

Debbie Klemmer said, “We are very fortunate that we are closed on Mondays as a rule. And so we weren’t affected yesterday like a lot of the businesses in town were Sunday.”

Debbie Klemmer, owner Of Two Peas Cafe, said they even have clean ice today.

Debbie Klemmer said, “I had come up here to unplug my ice machine to do a routine cleaning on it. So our ice is still good because we didn’t have any of the contaminated water said we were very blessed in that aspect too.”

The local cafe wasn’t hit by city-wide water shut-off.

But other businesses weren’t as lucky.

Kristi Ashley said, “This is unbelievable. Actually, I’ve never heard of a city having to be shut down because of no water. The whole city mean you crazy? Crazy.”

Kristi Ashley works at The American Legion Post 130.

Kristi Ashley said, ” I had people coming in. And I had to tell him we had to leave because we had no water. “

And no water means no business.

Kristi Ashley said, “It was not good. We lost money. The posts lost money. I lost money. The patrons were not very happy about it. Because this is their time to come in and enjoy their afternoon.”

The water line break was repaired late last night.

Workers have been on site today restoring the road Park Ave that was busted through to reach the water pipes.

But businesses today still had to adjust to the boil water notice.

Still no word from the city about what caused the water line break.

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