State officials say progress is being made to get water to southeastern Kentucky families who are without. Emergency response officials have been distributing bottled water in the region following last week's big snowfall and subzero temperatures that damaged water lines and clogged river intakes.
Kentucky Emergency Management Director Michael Dossett says this crisis is unlike any other the state has experienced. "We built, when this crisis began, an entire supply chain that had never been requested, or needed in the history of Kentucky Emergency Management,” said Dossett. “The supply chain goes from the actual vendor all the way to the point of distribution where the water gets put in a citizen's car."
Dossett says at the peak of the disaster, some 47,000 Kentucky households were without water. He says that figure is now down to under 20,000, but water distribution will continue into next week. Dossett says it's difficult to predict when all repairs will be completed. "We could get a number all the way down below 10,000 and that one would linger on for another week or so,” said Dossett. “It's just hard to say because it all depends on the ability of that water treatment system to be repaired."
Dossett says officials are giving out 190 gallons of water per day through the Pikeville distribution hub.
