Many residents throughout St. Pete Beach and surrounding areas dealt with little to no water this weekend.

Pinellas County officials said the low water pressure began Saturday and crews worked through the night to restore water pressure after they found a break in the potable water system at 75th Avenue and Blind Pass Road in St. Pete Beach.

However, many residents and businesses still didn’t have running water Sunday afternoon.

Jackie Smit owns Jackie’s on Corey Bistro and Catering. She started to lose water Saturday, as her usually robust sinks slowed to a trickle. She closed her restaurant – but still had two weddings to cater.

Jackie’s Bistro in St. Pete Beach closed on Sunday due to the water main break.

She asked both parties if they wanted to continue. They said yes.

“I can make it happen because I always do,” she said.

Jackie went to the supermarket and bought all the water she could find. She bought 10 55-gallon drums and filled them up with water from her house and drove them back to the restaurant with her truck.

She did that seven times.

“We under estimate how much we use water on a daily basis,” she said. “Washing your hands, just rising plates, cleaning everything.”

Saturday was an amazing undertaking, she said. But to open the restaurant Sunday for brunch and bottomless mimosas wasn’t a reality.

“I just can’t see doing bottomless mimosas,” she said. “And the bathrooms, could you imagine? No, it was better that I close.”

She couldn’t risk hurting her customers.

“I didn’t want to get somebody sick,” she said. “It’s more important to me, my customers are my world.”

The chef hopes to be able to reopen her restaurant sometime Monday.

A 48-hour precautionary boil water notice remains in effect for residents of the island and also for Tierra Verde.

Pinellas County will continue collecting samples for analysis until the absence of contamination is confirmed.  Customers will be notified when the precautionary boil water notice is rescinded.

The county is asking residents to bring all water to a roiling boil for one to three minutes before using it for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing dishes. 

For more information about boil water notifications, visit www.pinellascounty.org/boilwater.