The ongoing boil water notice in the city of Vicksburg and its accompanying loss of water pressure put the hurt on many Vicksburg businesses Tuesday.

Most restaurants closed here and businesses like laundry mats and car washes were forced to close.

“We got through the morning fine, but they turned off the water around noon. We usually clean clothes all afternoon. It’s going to back us up a good bit. We’re having to tell customers their clothes won’t be ready until Thursday or Friday,” said Andy Amborn, who owns United Cleaners in Vicksburg, along with his father and brother.

“If they don’t get the water back on soon, my pressers won’t be able to come in tomorrow, and they’ll miss hours of work, which will affect their income,” he said. “The boil water notice part of it doesn’t really effect us, but the water pressure does. We’re praying they get it back up soon.”

Restaurant owners were hit particularly hard.

“It’s affecting me greatly,” said Gary Thomas, manager at Goldies. “At lunch we had a crowd, but now business is slow.

We made our ice yesterday, so we cut off our ice machine, and if we run out, we’ll have to go buy some. We bought canned drinks and water. I have a friend in the Culkin water district, so I got water from him to use for the toilets and to wash hands. We’re boiling water to make tea and to wash dishes. We’re following the script.”

While Vicksburg’s casinos remained open, their restaurants, except for snack bars, were closed.

“Our doors are open. We have purchased bottled water and canned soft drinks. We have hand sanitizers distributed throughout the casino. The buffet is closed, but the snack bar, the Lucky B, is open and we are using disposable plates and utensils. The Sand Bar (club) will open tomorrow at 5 p.m. if everything goes well,” said Alesia Shaw, WaterView Casino marketing director.

Chik-fil-A closed Tuesday before the lunch crowd. Sonic on Halls Ferry  Road was empty and had orange traffic cones blocking the entrance.

By early afternoon, Shoney’s on Pemberton was closed, as was Newk’s.

Marcus Tucker, store director at Corner Market, said his store had a run on water.

“For the past few hours, we’ve had a huge spike,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “We have a truck of 24-packs of water coming in this afternoon to meet demand. It has gotten to the point now that as soon as we hear about a boil water notice, our employees are good about trying to get on top of that. We’re doing our best to help the customers.”

Tucker said he had calls from Vicksburg area schools, seeking pallets of water, as have other stores.

“We’re trying to plan ahead as quickly as possible,” he said.