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Friday morning, a break occurred in the water main near Dobbins Drive in Chapel Hill, <br />water in OWASA’s storage tanks dropped to critically low levels and OWASA informed <br />customers to limit use of water to essential purposes only. Soon after, at 11 a.m. on <br />Friday, the Orange County Health Department issued Do Not Drink and Do Not Use <br />directives for OWASA water, and OWASA sent customers an emergency message <br />instructing them to halt all water use immediately. <br /> <br />Because water storage supplies were so low, using water could contaminate the <br />system. OWASA couldn’t guarantee that the water was safe to drink without testing. <br />During the shortage, OWASA encouraged residents to use bottled water for personal <br />hygiene, cooking and drinking. <br />The Orange County health director ordered restaurants to close Friday afternoon. <br />Several restaurants said their business was affected. <br />“It was on Friday, which is you know one of our two busiest days of the week,” said <br />Ashley Cohn, general manager of Mellow Mushroom. “It was more like a Wednesday <br />crowd than a Saturday crowd.” <br />Cohn said it did not help that students were encouraged by the University to leave the <br />town. <br />“Every restaurant closed pretty much, and there just weren’t enough people,” she said. <br />“It was like we all stuck our straw in a pack full of soda.” <br />Linda’s Bar and Grill owner Chris Carini said Linda’s got an order from the health <br />department that said all restaurants must close. <br />Carini said business was affected by the closures and loss of students on campus, <br />along with the movement of the men’s basketball game out of Chapel Hill. <br />“We’re talking about a Friday night, in the middle of s pring semester, not to mention the <br />loss of the game on Notre Dame, which was a massive game,” he said. <br />Several grocery and convenience stores ran out of water Friday as residents rushed to <br />stock up. Some people had to drive to Durham or other nearby towns and cities to <br />purchase bottles and jugs of clean water. <br />“We took a lot of water from our overstock so everyone could come in and get as much <br />as they could,” said Ross Young-Wright, a shift lead at the 1500 E. Franklin St. <br />Walgreens Pharmacy.