Residents in southeastern Kentucky are starting to see their water restored. Many communities were without water for over a week due to the severe ice storm that left ice across much of Kentucky. Temperatures lingered below freezing for nearly two weeks.
Joe Engle lives in Perry County and happens to be the county's sheriff. He said many people in his community had to look for alternative sources of water during the freeze.
“We've got a fresh water spring here in our community on Lost Creek, a lot of us go to that and we pack it and use water from our swimming pools from the summertime, and we use it to flush toilets and things like that,” Engle said.
Some people went as long as 10 days without water.
Tony Eversole is the Hazard City Manager. He said it was a problem throughout the whole region.
“Letcher County is having trouble, Breathitt County is having trouble, Mountain Water had trouble, Pike County, maybe Floyd County. It's regional, you know, stuff like this, the record low temps for two weeks like that, just really worked on the water system,” he said.
Eversole said his utility serves around 10,000 customers. He said while water is being restored, there are boil-water advisories throughout the region.
People should check with their local utilities for the status of those advisories.
