Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Roger Houck, interim director of the Giles County Public Service Authority, looks down at a temporary water pump at work Tuesday. A part to fix the region's water filtration plant is on order.

Marsha Meadows gets a hug from her niece, 8-year-old Abigail Vaught, on Monday in Pearisburg. Meadows runs Marsha's Restaurant and said she has to boil water for coffee and purchase bags of ice.

PEARISBURG -- When the soft drink machine went out at the Dairy Queen in this small mountain community, a victim of a countywide water system disruption, managers improvised.

They bought bottled soda at the convenience store next door and invited customers to pour their own drinks.

"We have everything prepared pretty good here," assistant manager Brenda Griggs said.

Residents and businesses in Giles County and a few in West Virginia endured the inconvenience of tap water restrictions Tuesday with little apparent difficulty.

A school closing Tuesday was lifted by Tuesday afternoon.

While Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital rescheduled elective surgeries involving an incision, the hospital was admitting new patients and operating its emergency room. Patients drank bottled water and were cleaned up with wipes, while everyone had access to hand sanitizer.

"The people of Giles County have a lot of common sense and deal with a situation like this very well," Giles County Administrator Chris McKlarney said.

The region's water filtration plant was disabled by a suspected electrical surge that knocked out the well pump's variable frequency driver during the past weekend. The system was delivering chlorinated, but unfiltered, water.

Clean water service was expected to be restored Sept. 9 or 10, according to Roger Houck, interim director of the Giles County Public Service Authority.

The system furnishes potable water to the municipal distribution systems of the county and the communities of Glen Lyn, Narrows, Pearisburg, Pembroke and Rich Creek, which in turn pipe the water to 5,000 homes and businesses in Virginia and West Virginia.

A part is on order from Wisconsin. After it arrives, installation may take a day or two. But crews will need a week or more to resume normal service because of extensive setup requirements that include bacterial testing across the system, Houck said. "It could be Wednesday or Thursday of next week," he said.

Pearisburg Mayor Barbara Stafford predicted there would be plenty of bottled water as long as the restrictions last.

"We've been through crises before. You just handle it," said Macie Hollinger, a volunteer at the Giles County Chamber of Commerce.

The Virginia Department of Health advised all water system users Monday night to boil drinking water for one minute before use or buy bottled water until normal water service resumes.

Purification tablets, bleach, home-filtration equipment or a camper's portable water filter should not be trusted because they do not reliably bring water up to drinking standards, VDH spokesman Robert Parker said.

On the other hand, "boiling kills everything," Parker said.

In households and businesses, the routine became as follows: Get out a pot, fill it with tap water and set it on a burner.

April Cumbee of Narrows, who was grocery shopping, said she plans to comply -- right down to boiling water to brush her teeth. She plans to use her unboiled tap water for bathing, she said.

"I don't think it will hurt," she said.

Health officials said that it is safe to bathe or shower in Giles County's tap water as long as the person does not drink any or have a deep, open wound or any surgical wound still not healed.

Just to make sure food-related businesses and organizations were aware, the health department set out to call on about 60 food-service permit holders in the affected area. Those visits were scheduled to continue today.

Marsha Meadows, owner of Marsha's Restaurant in Pearisburg, said she would comply.

But, "it sucks," she said. "Have to boil water for coffee. Have to go buy ice."

Back at the Diary Queen, Linda Foley of Lerona, W.Va., asked at the counter for water for a thirsty dog outside. Griggs filled a plastic ice cream dish with bottled water and refused payment.

"It was very nice of her," Foley said, "especially since it was bottled water and they had to pay extra for it."