How Downtown Elkhart is dealing with the boil order during high temperatures

ELKHART, Ind - Downtown Elkhart had a water main break on the corner of Lexington and 3rd street on Tuesday afternoon. 

While the water is back on, there still is a boil order that the city anticipates being in effect through Thursday night. 

With dangerously high temperatures throughout Michiana, the city has a tip to keep your kitchen cool. 

“We do understand that having a bunch of boiling water in your kitchen right now given how hot it is, is not ideal, we encourage people to do that boiling of the water they need to use later in the evening or first thing in the morning, before it gets too hot in the middle of the day,” said Corinne Straight, the Director of Communications for Elkhart. 

One local restaurant owner, Silong Kao, who owns Kao's Thai fusion restaurant on Marion Street is taking precautions to stay open during the boil order. 

“We’ve implemented a few things, we serve a lot of drinks, we switched over to using bottles of water or gallons of water and with all of our cooking products, we’ve been making sure the water is clear and making sure that the water is boiled,” said Kao. 

Residents are encouraged to only drink water that has been boiled for three minutes and Silong is making sure his workers, especially in the sweltering kitchen are staying hydrated.  

As of now, the boil order by state law must be in effect for 48 hours and at that 48-hour mark, testing can be done. 

The city will need two safe water tests in order to lift the boil order.