FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – While some businesses along Las Olas Boulevard never closed during the water outage in Fort Lauderdale, serving bottled water all day long, others were forced to shut their doors because of health and safety concerns.
Now that the water has been restored, numerous Fort Lauderdale establishments were back open Friday morning.
"It's a little bit of an adjustment," Riverside Hotel general manager Heiko Dobrikow said. "It's nice that the doors are open again."
Dobrikow said the hotel was among the businesses that closed Thursday morning, moving guests to other hotels.
Although a boil-water order is still in effect, the Riverside Hotel has taken precautions for its guests.
"We emptied all of the ice out of the entire hotel," Dobrikow said. "We ordered it from West Palm Beach. It was delivered yesterday and we're getting another delivery today so that we actually have ice on property. Everything needs to be boiled. We have notifications for the hotel guests in the room that they cannot use the water to brush their teeth."
Other businesses along the popular tourist strip also felt the effects of the water outage.
Popular ice cream shop Kilwins never closed but used at least 50 gallons of bottled water, costing the establishment money. The ice cream shop is also making limited products because of the water concerns.