WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Many West Palm Beach businesses had to scramble late Friday and early Saturday morning in order for them to have bottled water and bagged ice for their customers during the busy Memorial Day holiday weekend. It's all because of the water advisory that was issued Friday night.
Some restaurants along Clematis Street like Lynora's had to make some changes.
"We instantly drained all our ice and brought in bags of ice," owner Angelo Abbenate said. "We turned around and brought in a lot more bottled water and canned goods to make our cocktails and our drinks."
Abbenate said Lynora's has a water-filter system in place that should take out any bacteria as an additional precaution and wishes restaurants would have gotten an alert from the city sooner than the way they did.
"You never know when they threw it out. I think they have their own protocols on how they have to advise.=, but when it comes to the restaurant industry, it would be good to have a little bit of a heads up so we can prepare," he said. "I think the filter system should really ensure all customers are going to be free from this algae that is going on right now."
There were some restaurants in the downtown area that brought in crates of bottled water.
Meanwhile, Laura Olsson recently opened up for dinner at her restaurant Johan Joe's in downtown West Palm Beach. When the water advisory was issued, her business was ready.
"We have a total of five filtration systems throughout the restaurant here. Each one has four different types of filters in it," Olsson said. "Through the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) website, we're able to determine two of those filters -- the sentiment and the carbon -- do help remove these cells from the water."
Moving forward, Olsson said her staff is going to be doing their own due diligence.
"That means taking our own water samples now, moving forward, and getting them tested ourselves as well," Olsson said.
