CLEVELAND — It begins. The deep cold has arrived, and with it, broken water mains are affecting businesses and residents across the region.
Early Monday mornings at Belle Luna are usually busy with baking and cooking to gear up for the week. But today, those cases are empty.
“I can't do any prep, because you need water to cook and do prep,” said Lyz Otero, Owner of Bella Luna.
With no water or an ability to prep, Otero is forced to serve a limited menu which is hurting. their profits.
“Serving half of the menu, you're barely going to make any money. Because 50% of our money is their pastries. So you don't have pastries,” said Otero.
Just seven minutes down the road, crews are working on another burst water line, while inside La Centro Americana grocery store, the water is no more than a trickle.
“The water pressure has been low these past few days, even the people who live upstairs have been saying that they have low water pressure,” said Victoria Jimenez, an employee at La Centro Americana.
On Monday morning, water fell from the West 73rd Street bridge on the right lanes of I-90 eastbound.
Our overnight news tracker also witnessed water main breaks at West 25th Street and Trowbridge Avenue, as well as Detroit Avenue and West 54th Street.
Cleveland Water says repairs to 12-inch mains are being made at the I-90 and West 54th Street breaks.
News 5 reached out to Cleveland Water for answers, and they say they're dealing with quite a few water main breaks due to the cold weather. All of their crews are out working on fixing them, adding that the time of repair depends on the area.
They also wrote the following:
"Our water remains safe to drink. We prioritize breaks based on several factors, including the severity and size of the break, the number of customers affected, and the overall system integrity."
To manage, Otero has been using whatever water is in her tea machine, but today that ran out.
She says they will continue serving until they run out of food, but if the water issue isn't resolved soon, they may have to close.
Cleveland Water urges residents to call their emergency line at 216-664-3060 if they spot a water main break and to avoid driving through any flooded streets.
Sub-zero wind chills have settled in, and it does not look like wind chills will get out of the negatives until midweek.
