CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city of Mathis is still under a water boil after detecting low chlorine levels in one part of town Wednesday afternoon.
Mathis City Manager Cedric Davis said that the boil is more of a safety precaution. However, there are businesses that are being forced to adapt to still meet the needs of their customers.
Gigi's Pizzeria is one of the businesses along San Patricio Avenue that has had to make adjustments since the water boil began. One of the workers, who wished to remain anonymous, said that this isn't the first water boil he's been through.
"We have to go get separate ice that was already made somewhere else because we can't use the ice that was already made here, so that's already a whole another process that it adds to us," he said.
The boil has made simple tasks, like ordering drinks a source of headache for customers.
"We can't sell our fountain drinks anymore, we have to charge for 20 ounce bottles, so that's another inconvenience that our customers have to face as well," he said.
The city manager said the city is waiting to get water samples back from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality before they can decide on how to proceeded with the water boil advisory.
"It takes about 24 hours and then we'll get the results back, and then if everything is fine, the results from the lab, we'll lift the water boil," Davis said.
The Coastal Bend Food Bank donating cases of water to Mathis residents. Cars lined up at the Mathis Public Works building Thursday morning for the distribution event. Davis said that during water boil advisories, safety is paramount.
"Chlorine kills the bacteria and things like that, parasites, things that might be in the water," he said. "So if it's low, you take that safety measure of testing it so to prevent someone from getting sick."
Even under circumstances like these, for Gigi's, it's still business as usual.
"We do let them know that everything that is cooked, if we did have to boil with it, that we did follow all the precautions," the employee said. "Some of our customers are weekly, they come like clockwork."