CAPE CORAL - Everyone on Cape Coral's city water system is being asked to boil any water used for drinking, cooking, or brushing teeth; though some are just happy to have any water at all.

"We were going to have a dinner party for the family at 6:00, so my wife started doing dinner," said Jose Chardon of Cape Coral. "She turns on the faucet and just nothing's coming out."

Dinner didn't quite go as planned for Jose Chardon and his family. They live just a couple of blocks from where a utility crew damaged the main line coming out of the city's water plant on Tuesday afternoon.

"(They) damaged a valve on an existing large main, a 30 inch main, and of course that created a massive leak," said Cape Coral Utilities manager George Reilly.

Crews worked into the evening to patch the pipe and bring up water pressure. That sudden drop put the whole system at risk for possible problem.

"When you lose the pressure, you have the potential to have contamination enter the system at another point," Reilly said.

While pressure dropped for many across the Cape, the Chardons and their dinner party were left with no pressure-- and no running water-- for most of the evening.

"There was somebody from the city that did drive around and they passed out jugs of water so we could actually drink some water tonight," Jose Chardon said.

As the dirty dishes piled up, the family gave the faucet one more try-- and it worked. Water began flowing again at 7:30, about four hours after the water problems began.

City crews will being taking several samples on Wednesday. They'll get the results back by Thursday. The city says that's likely the earliest the boil water notice could be lifted.