About 3,000 Seattle houses and businesses in the Crown Hill neighborhood were without water Thursday after a main break overnight Wednesday.

Essential to many restaurant operations, utility workers have duties in the front and back of the house but are rarely in the public eye. Alfonso Lira, 61, from Michoacán, has worked at Chapter One in ...

Utility workers fix the issue by shutting off the valves to stop water flow. The work could take at least four hours to a full day. Similar to the heat, the cold slows the workers down.