Multiple water main breaks on Friday left many in Atlanta wondering about the weekend. Would a lack of water or low water pressure be just an overnight headache or something worse?
It got worse. As the problems lingered into Monday, everyone — from theaters, restaurants and music venues, to residents and visitors — felt the impact of the water woes, with canceled or postponed shows, shuttered dining rooms, blocked access to roads and sidewalks, canceled summer school programs and hotels without running water or operable toilets.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Money down the drain
For many, it wasn’t just an inconvenience, but a hefty financial blow.
The storied Plaza Theatre in Poncey-Highland lost around $10,000 this weekend, owner Christopher Escobar estimated Monday. The theater, located on Ponce de Leon Avenue, had to cancel its screenings early on Friday after its water went out, and remained closed on Saturday. The theater reopened on Sunday, though could not offer fountain drinks and provided hand sanitizer due to the boil water advisory.
Dad’s Garage Theatre had to make the call at 4 p.m. Friday to cancel two films on Friday and two shows on Saturday, including the long-standing game-show-style improv competition, Theatresports. With the loss of ticket sales and anticipated bar revenue, the comedy hot spot lost about $6,000 over the weekend, according to executive producer Jon Carr.
The cancellation of a Saturday performance by the K-pop band P1Harmony at the Fox Theatre resulted in a “six figure loss,” according Jamie Vosmeier, vice president of sales and marketing. Luckily, said Vosmeier, the Fox made the decision to nix the show before the band had unloaded its equipment.
Numerous eateries across Little Five Points, Downtown, Grant Park, Old Fourth Ward, the West End, East Atlanta, Midtown, Inman Park and Candler Park were forced to close on Friday due to water outages or low water pressure. Some awoke Saturday to restored water pressure but with a water boil advisory in effect, while others found their taps completely dry. Operators either had to shut down or find workarounds.
Bovino After Dark, a supper club that operates out of a counter inside Hop City at the Lee + White mixed-use development in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, was closed for all of its shifts Friday through Sunday due to the water issues.
Co-owner Alex Sher estimated the business lost to be between $10,000 and $14,000. He said the timing, at the end of the month when most businesses have to gather rent and pay for expenses, couldn’t have been worse.
Bovino, which still paid its employees over the weekend, is offering buyout options, catering menus and off-site and special event packages to try to recoup losses.
On Monday, the Bovino staff began assessing which perishable food products could be salvaged or composted.
Even with insurance, Sher said the costs of being forced to close over the weekend are immeasurable.
“Even deductibles have limits,” he said. “There’s no way to completely offset this.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Kirkwood eatery Sun in my Belly closed early on Friday and remained shut on Saturday. Megan Cook, catering director and the sister of owner Max LeBlanc, estimated the lost revenue to be between $14,000 to $16,000.
They took extensive measures to open on Sunday and not lose another day of business.
Navigating barriers, making U-turns
On the doorstep of the Residence Inn Marriott in Midtown, Atlanta Watershed crews taped off West Peachtree Street on Monday morning to address ongoing water main issues that have plagued the city for four days.
Travelers staying in the hotel don’t have water, but they have a good view of West Peachtree Street’s underbelly. Several excavators transferred mud into dump trucks that would leave a trail of brown water in their wake as they drove away.
Road barriers and caution tape also disrupted the usual path of pedestrians and passing vehicles, some of whom turned around in frustration when realizing their path was blocked. One man on a scooter asked reporters and watershed workers, “Is this still going on?” before shaking his head and making a U-turn to find a detour.
Jazmen Dean, who lives in an apartment along West Peachtree Street, said her friends came over in droves this weekend to use her shower, since she wasn’t impacted by the water outages.
That situation reversed Monday.
”People were coming to my place to shower, but now I’ve got to go to one of my friend’s to shower after Pilates,” she said.
Dean moved to Midtown from Washington, D.C., in February. She never had a prolonged water outage there, and she never thought an issue like this would happen in one of the most expensive parts of this city. ”It’s a damper on the city, especially for this to be in Midtown,” she said. As an engineer, she was annoyed at the lack of clarity from city leaders and the lack of an action plan.
”The biggest thing we want is just an explanation,” she said.
A scramble to ‘figure it out’
Maria Goenaga is just one parent who had to quickly switch her kids’ plan for the day.
Goenaga had signed her 8- and 11-year-old up for the Xanadu summer camp, an APS summer program taking place at Midtown High School. Monday would have been the first day of camp, but that changed after the ongoing water main breaks and boil water advisories.
Goenaga, who works in health care, said one of her biggest concerns was the lack of communication from Atlanta Public Schools.
”The first contact was at 7:45 last night, which was a phone call, like an automated phone call and text message. And then there was an email sent out at 10 p.m. directly from our camp.”
Goenaga, who had to work today, said she got “lucky,” because she had also signed her kids up for another summer camp with the Boys & Girls Club.
”I’m lucky that I had that available, but I know there are many parents that don’t,” she said. “And a 7:45 p.m. phone call, it’s really inappropriate.”
For Sun in my Belly, pivoting included renting portable toilets, purchasing fresh ice and gathering five-gallon jugs of water and as many customized water bottles as they could find. Chefs arrived two hours earlier than their normal shift to start boiling water. Around midday, they had to shrink the coffee menu because they could not heat enough water to keep up with the orders. Sunday evening, employees came in to thoroughly wash and process all the dishes and glassware.
Sun in my Belly has been operating for about 30 years, so they’ve muscled through countless challenges from the 2008 recession to COVID-19, Cook said. They’ve had the same leadership for more than a decade, which allows them to move quickly as a team to produce backup plans upon backup plans.
“We have a lot of things that we have to pivot on weekly,” Cook said. “So this was just another blip in the system that we were like, we know what to do.”
Fifth Group founder Steve Simon said that the biggest challenge was “trying to figure out what was going on. I think that’s what everyone ran into. We didn’t know what to expect or when to expect it.”
Fifth Group closed the downtown location of Alma Cocina on Friday, finally reopening it in time for dinner service on Sunday. Low water pressure at Ela in Virginia-Highland forced a delayed opening for Friday’s service. But the group was particularly concerned about its Midtown restaurants South City Kitchen, Lure and Ecco.
“With that geyser flowing out of (West) Peachtree, we were scared to death all weekend. We have three restaurants within a few blocks of it. Fortunately none were impacted.”
Despite lack of information from city officials, Simon said that Fifth Group “went into over-communication mode” though company text group messages, eblasts and the use of social media. “We were able to scramble and figure it out,” he said.
The Trolley Barn, a nonprofit event facility owned by Friends of Inman Park, had gatherings scheduled all weekend — a wedding Friday night, a mitzvah Saturday and a memorial service on Sunday.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
None were canceled. Caterers brought in drinking water, and the Trolley Barn rounded up portable toilets for Saturday and Sunday. There wasn’t enough time to order portable toilets for Friday night, however. Despite signs warning of the problem, the Trolley Barn’s unflushable commodes were soon overwhelmed by the wedding guests. Three brave souls, including the wedding planner, a Trolley Barn staffer and the off-duty police officer at the site, pitched in to bail them out.
“They did not enjoy that” said Trolley Barn executive director Julie Noble.
Like many, Dad’s Garage’s Carr expressed sentiments that were likely shared by many residents experiencing wear and tear on the nerves, a dearth of information and the concern that shows, plans and reservations would be canceled moments before the water came back on.
His feelings over the weekend? “Stressed and confused are probably the two words that come to mind,” said Carr.
Bo Emerson, Ligaya Figueras, Yvonne Zusel, Olivia Wakim, Zachary Hansen, Shane Harrison, Savannah Sicurella and Jillian Price contributed to this story.
About the Author
