“No water, No ice, Plenty of Beer”: Savannah and surrounding areas reflect on weekend boil water advisory

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A rare city-wide boil water advisory over the weekend brought unexpected challenges to residents and businesses in Savannah and surrounding communities, including Bloomingdale, Port Wentworth, Pooleradvisory, and parts of Effingham County.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson addressed the unusual scale of the advisory, “A boil water advisory—never seen on this scale in recent memory,” Johnson said. “Machine-operated processes sometimes have failures. We push 40 to 50 million gallons of water every single day.”

The issue forced restaurants in areas under an advisory to come up with other solutions, including purchasing water bottles or selling beer and liquor in the meantime.

“It is a little bit of a sense of dread just because it definitely puts a hiccup in daily operations,” said Zachary Bacon, General Manager of Treylor Park, a popular restaurant in downtown Savannah. “Most restaurants didn’t have water, and it’s just how it was.”

Treylor Park, like many others, adapted quickly to the inconvenience.

“No water, there’s no ice, lots of beer,” Bacon said. “Luckily, in Savannah, beer’s always flowing.”

Despite the disruption, Bacon noted that most customers continued to come in.

“We found that most customers still came in the door, and most people still have to eat food,” he said. “Yeah, it definitely added some frustrations, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the end of the world.”

Mayor Johnson commended the city’s water department employees, who worked around the clock to resolve the issue.

“I will tell you—they earned their money this weekend,” Mayor Johnson said.

By Sunday, the advisory was lifted for all affected areas. City officials remain cautious, with the Mayor acknowledging that while he cannot guarantee it won’t happen again, but hopes that any more widespread advisories stay rare.

“God bless water and God bless Savannah’s water,” Mayor Johnson said.