A broken water main left many homes and businesses dry in the town of Floyd Tuesday as “we’re closed” signs appeared on doors and windows of restaurants, banks and other establishments Tuesday.

I drove through the traffic backup on North Main Street on the way to covering court Tuesday morning but emerged from a long day of hearings and foud most offices in the  Courthouse closed,  a “closed sign” on Skyline Bank and Blue Ridge Cafe and then other locations during the drive out of town in the afternoon.

Some, like Circle K, stayed open but warned residents they did not have water or restrooms available.  While Skyline was closed, Atlanic Union remained opened, as did some other business locations in town.

Floyd County PSA reported late Tuesday afternoon that water is returning “slowly” to the system and they hoped to have everything running by around 2 am Wednesday.  Crews worked through the day and into the night.

The outage affected only those on the town’s water system.  Most of the county depends on individual wells that continued to flow.

In town Tuesday, those needing a restroom were told to find a nearby bush or tree.  Restrooms in convenience stores, restaurants and other locations were closed down until water returned.

I saw two men “taking care of business” behind the dumpsters on Christiansburg Pike and Needmore Lane Tuesday afternoon.

Fortunately, my drive home was short.