Water outages in E. Ky. force people to make do with melted snow, emergency supplies

CUMBERLAND — People in parts of Harlan County are getting pretty good at melting snow to wash dishes and flush toilets.

Residents said water service went out beginning Friday in Cumberland and nearby areas served by the city water system.

People have been getting by since with bottled water to drink, but many have improvised to do at least a little personal and household cleaning.

Zakk Logic, who lives in Cumberland, said he'd been melting snow and using the water to hand-wash clothes.

"It makes stuff a lot harder to do," he said Tuesday. "You gotta melt a lot to do it."

Kathy Fields said she'd been dipping water from the creek behind her house and boiling it so she could use it to wash dishes and clean at her home, where her 2-year-old granddaughter Alyssa also lives.

"That's about the worst of it — not being able to clean up," she said of being without water. "Especially if you've got a baby."

Residents in Harlan County were among tens of thousands in Eastern Kentucky who lost water service over the weekend because of broken distribution lines or clogged intakes blamed on frigid weather.

While state officials had estimated Monday that more than 45,000 Kentucky households were without water, the situation was showing some improvement Tuesday. The total was down to 28,828 households by Tuesday afternoon, though that number was fluctuating, said Buddy Rogers, spokesman for Kentucky Emergency Management.

In addition to the problems in Harlan County, there were significant numbers of people without water in 13 other counties.

While Pike, Greenup and Floyd were among the hardest-hit, Rogers said Boyd, Breathitt, Clay, Estill, Knott, Knox, Letcher, Martin, Perry and Powell counties were also struggling.

In Cumberland, the big problem was a clogged water intake, local officials said. Mayor Carolyn Elliott said service was out to about 1,000 homes.

There was some good news Tuesday as divers from a company in Cincinnati, working in icy, chest-deep water, were able to clear debris from the water intake in the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River.

Operators started drawing water into the plant just after noon, for the first time in days.

But the news was not great. That's because after the outage, it could take several days to get the system operating at regular capacity given the need to clean filters, flush lines and fill reservoirs, officials said.

And when the water does start flowing, it's likely that breaks in service lines that couldn't be detected with no water flowing will become apparent, Elliott said. That means many residents could face several more days without water service.

In an effort to help tapped-out counties throughout the region, the state has been sending water to a distribution center in Pike County. The National Guard is then moving the water from the hub to "points of distribution" where the water is distributed by local officials.

Rogers said 13 truckloads were scheduled to be delivered to struggling counties on Wednesday.

He said the scarcity of water could continue through the rest of this week.

"We anticipate most of these systems being back on line by the end of the week," he said. "But again, we have another bitter cold night forecast for Thursday night. So, we might take a step back again come Friday. But we just have to hope for the best."

He added that the governor and emergency management have said they will do whatever must be done to make sure people have water.

Meanwhile, it's been a weary few days for the Tri-City Rescue Squad in Cumberland, where members were loading gallon jugs of water into a steady stream of cars and trucks Tuesday.

The squad building opened as a warming station during a power outage over the weekend, then switched to providing water on Sunday, said Capt. Becky Creech.

Volunteers and police also delivered water to residents who could not get to the squad building, going to at least 200 homes Tuesday, Creech said.

"Making a lot of people happy," sheriff's Deputy Winston Yeary said as he headed out in a four-wheel drive vehicle to deliver water.

Erika Wynn, a nurse, said one elderly woman hugged her boyfriend, Justin Newsome, when they delivered water to her.

Operation UNITE donated about 3,500 gallon jugs of water to the squad by late afternoon Tuesday, Creech said.

Cumberland's water outage followed on the heels of snow that made streets hard to navigate and then flooding — caused by drains covered by snow — at several businesses, Creech said.

Most restaurants and several other businesses remained closed Tuesday because of the lack of water service, taking a toll on their bottom line and knocking employees out of work.

"It's just basically shut everything down," said Yvonne Gilliam, a member of the Cumberland City Council. "It's been a terrible mess."

Gilliam said the outage "better build a fire" to finish a project to connect the water systems of Cumberland, Benham and Lynch so they'll have a backup.

Several people said it's easy to take water service for granted until nothing comes out of the tap.

"It changes everything as far as things you took for granted," said Ed Powell. "Think of all the things you do with water."

Kenneth Turner, who came to the rescue squad Tuesday, said the situation reminded him of having to carry water home from a spring as a child.

"It's a pain in the butt," he said.

The worst part of being without water? "Not being able to take a shower," Creech said.

Rescue-squad members said most residents had been supportive and seemed to weather the outage well.

One woman brought a pot of vegetable soup to the squad building Tuesday, and people had helped deliver water or picked up some for neighbors.

"It went smoother than I expected," said James Creech, Becky Creech's husband.

But the days without water and the daily limit of 3 gallons per family, necessary to stretch the supply, were wearing thin for some.

Some people had gotten upset because they couldn't get all the water they wanted for bathing and cleaning, Becky Creech said.

"Hopefully we'll get water soon," she said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Water outages in E. Ky. force people to make do with melted snow, emergency supplies."