News roundup: Late boil-water advisory sends N.O. restaurants scrambling … Lafayette General breaks ground on $52.5M expansion … La. Republicans asked to volunteer in Florida

Published Oct 9, 2012 at 10:00 am (Updated Oct 9, 2012)

Half full: On Monday about 1 p.m., Joel Dondis washed down lunch at his downtown New Orleans restaurant Grand Isle with a large glass of tap water. Several minutes later, Dondis says, he received an email alert from the city warning residents that the water was unsafe to drink unless boiled. And the boil-water advisory would be in effect for 24 hours as testing was conducted. Dondis immediately called his other businesses—Sucre, Le Petite Grocery and Joel Catering—and told them to dump the ice, serve only bottled water, and boil water before washing dishes or rinsing vegetables. "Thank God it's a Monday," Dondis says. "If it had been a Saturday with all the tourists in town, or Sunday, imagine the Superdome. It would have been a fiasco." The Times-Picayune has the full story here.

Going up: A $52.5 million expansion and renovation project is under way at Lafayette General Medical Center. The project will add a new emergency department, trauma elevator, parking garage and surgical space. When everything is complete, hospital President David Callecod says, a new one-story building will sit in what is now an LGMC parking lot and connect to the front of the LGMC West Tower. Callecod says the emergency department and operating room expansion will increase emergency bed capacity from 31 beds to 45. The (Lafayette) Advertiser has the full story here.

Every vote counts: With Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney expected to easily win Louisiana on Nov. 6, GOP supporters are being asked to help campaign for Romney in the battleground state of Florida. Jason Dor�, executive director of the Republican Party of Louisiana, sent an email to supporters Monday, asking them to consider "deploying to Florida" to campaign for Romney in his bid to unseat Democratic President Barack Obama. Dor� says volunteers who head to Florida will make phone calls to remind people about the upcoming election, knock on doors for Romney and staff campaign events. The party notes it won't be covering volunteers' expenses.