PORT ANGELES — The Red Lion Hotel and Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant reopened Saturday morning after a broken water pipe prompted the closure of both for nearly 24 hours.
The break, which occurred sometime early Friday or late Thursday, filled the restaurant’s patio with about eight inches of water. It was unknown what caused the pipe to break.
Water was shut off to the hotel and restaurant at 221 N. Lincoln St. at about 11:10 a.m. Friday so that the repair could be made, said Jeffrey Lapierre-Shuck, hotel manager.
“It wasn’t information that we like to hear,” he said.
“But it ended up not being as bad as it could have been.”
The pipe was fixed at about 11:45 p.m. Friday.
The restaurant and hotel were both open again at 10 a.m. Saturday after all of the staff could be notified, Lapierre-Shuck said.
While the broken pipe provided water only to the building’s fire suppression system, Lapierre-Shuck said Port Angeles utility workers had to shut water off to the restaurant and hotel because there wasn’t a known valve for the broken pipe.
A valve was located late Friday buried about four feet underground, Lapierre-Shuck said.
The break affected no other businesses.
Lapierre-Shuck said staff members helped the hotel’s 27 guests find other accommodations Friday and the same was done for those who were expected to arrive with reservations during the closure.
None will charged for his or her stays, Lapierre-Shuck said.
He said some walk-in guests had to be turned away. He didn’t know how many.
The restaurant’s patio, which had to be partially excavated for the broken pipe to be reached, will be repaved next week, Lapierre-Shuck said.
The patio is not used during the fall and winter months.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
