A water main break Friday evening forced several local restaurants along Wells Branch Parkway to close during one of their busiest times of the week.
AUSTIN, Texas — Many North Austin residents remain without fresh water after a massive water main burst Friday night along Wells Branch Parkway in front of Milan Apartments.
A contractor tapped the 24-inch concrete and steel pipe around 5:30 p.m. Friday. Crews worked through the night on the repairs and finished late Saturday afternoon, but all customers in the area are still under a boil water order for 24 hours.
One Milano Apartments resident described the moment gallons of water spurted into the air near his apartment.
“Half the neighborhood came out to see what was going on,” said Milan Apartments resident Peter Martin. “I went outside and it looked like water was gushing out of a fire hydrant. It felt like it was 50 to 100 metres high.”
Milano Apartments handed out cases of water to residents on Saturday morning and even encouraged residents to bring buckets of water from the community pool to flush toilets.
RELATED: Repairs completed, boil water notice issued after massive water main burst in North Austin
But some local businesses across the street didn’t have access to water, and Inka Chicken had to close on its busiest day of the week.
“You know, this is our number one reliance on this day of the week, so this definitely means a lot,” Inka Chicken co-owner Richard Jordan said.
Jordan was on the road when the closures occurred, but said he’s felt the impact of employees losing their jobs.
“We know they want to work and they want to be paid for their time,” Jordan said.
Akil of New Sitara Indian Cuisine on Wells Branch Parkway also felt the impact of not having water on his busiest day, when his water was suddenly cut off in the middle of the Friday night dinner rush.
“We manage to get by for a few hours but it’s difficult to sustain without water,” Akil said.
Akil said it was also difficult having to turn away customers who didn’t know the shop was closed.
“You know, not only will we lose money, but we’ll also lose some of our customers who call us on the weekends,” Akil said.
The 24-hour boil water warning began Saturday at about 2:45 p.m.
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