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Downtown Chattanooga takes economic hit due to water outage

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Buildings inside a proposed Business Improvement District are seen on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The proposed district would encompass downtown Chattanooga from the Riverfront to 11th Street and from U.S. Highway 27 to different areas bordered by Cherry Street, Lindsay Street and Georgia Avenue.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Buildings inside a proposed Business Improvement District are seen on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The proposed district would encompass downtown Chattanooga from the Riverfront to 11th Street and from U.S. Highway 27 to different areas bordered by Cherry Street, Lindsay Street and Georgia Avenue.

By Mike Pare 4 min read

Blame it on Friday the 13th.

That was the sentiment of one Cartersville, Georgia, man Friday outside the Tennessee Aquarium, where people were turned away in the wake of a water line break that paralyzed much of downtown Chattanooga.

Many restaurants were closed. Major employers such as Unum and BlueCross BlueShield shut their offices. Hotels were scrambling to keep and service patrons. Warehouse Row was dark.

Keith Sanford, chairman of the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he’d never seen such a sustained widespread water outage in the downtown area in his nearly 40 years in the city.

He said restaurants, hotels and other entities will take a financial hit. Sanford guessed that the outage could impact as many as 100 eateries and 30 hotels.