Photo by Marla Marrs | On Tuesday, during a critical water shortage, a line of vehicles wrapped around the fair barn to receive a one gallon of water per person allotment for the day.
Estill Countians might have been thinking they were going to get by without a lot of winter weather this year.
But that was before ol’ man winter came roaring through, dumping more than a foot of snow on some areas of the county.
Then the bottom fell out of the thermometers. On Friday morning, Estill County saw some of the coldest air in decades with temperatures plunging to the negative twenties.
The snow and cold created a slew of problems, one of the greatest being with the county’s water supply.
A press release issued by Estill County Emergency Management Services on Monday said there was a critical water shortage county-wide. Fifteen hundred customers were totally without water and many others were experiencing low water pressure.
The water companies issued a boil water advisory for the entire county.
The shortage was caused by a number of factors, including the fact that a large number of people have been leaving water running to prevent the freezing of pipes.
After temperatures rose above freezing, many pipes burst, and those breaks contributed to the higher than usual demand on water.
To make matters worse, about 85 KU customers were without power on Saturday for about three hours. The water plant was one of those customers and was unable to pump water at all during that time, causing their supply to be further depleted.
Melting snow caused the river to rise, and the water treatment plant had problems with the intake, where water is pumped in from the river, getting clogged with chunks of ice and debris.
Workers at the water plant were forced to shut off the intake and blow the debris out with an air compressor every 20 minutes on Monday, while they awaited the arrival of another pump from Cincinnati. With the news of the critical shortage and the boil water advisory, stores began to sell out of bottled water quickly.
Brian Crowe, with IMU, said water supply was expected to be short for two or three days, possibly as long as a week.
The water company wasn’t the only one to have problems.
A Kentucky Utilities power outage Friday morning left approximately 3,500 people without electricity for about six hours.
Nearby Waco recorded the lowest temperature in the state on Friday morning at 32 below zero at Eastern Kentucky University’s Meadowbrook Farms.
Governor Bashear declared a state of emergency. Many workplaces closed. Most of the courthouse offices were closed or on a delay schedule through Thursday.
Local businesses continued to suffer after the main roads cleared, because parking lots were still snow covered.
Driveways and parking lots continued to pose problems for several days following the snowstorm.
The county opened a warming shelter at Estill Springs Elementary to provide a place to find a hot meal or even a warm bed for anyone who needed them.
School was dismissed for all last week, and was closed again on Monday and Tuesday.
State and county road crews have been busy. Roy Arvin, supervisor of Estill County’s state highway department, said on Monday that state roads were clear and mostly dry. State trucks were parked so drivers could clean and service them.
Arvin said the state is still in good shape as far as the salt supply goes.
Fuel vendors like Hardy Gas worked frantically to fill orders.
Photos taken by Marla Marrs | Left Photo: The Estill County’s Volunteer Rescue Squad worked tremendously hard during the bad weather. Ronnie Conrad and other members of the rescue squad takes a break to enjoy chili and sandwiches at the warming shelfter at Estill Springs Elementary. | Right Photo: Rescue Squad enjoys a meal together after along day.
Melissa Jesse, with Estill Emergency Services, credited the rescue squad, as well as city fire and Hargett fire departments with working around the clock to come to the aid of citizens.
“I really want to stress how hard they have been working,” she said, noting that the rescue squad had been sleeping on cots at the EMS building and living on Little Debbie cakes and cold fried chicken all week. On Friday, though, they were treated to a hot meal at Estill Springs Elementary, where a temporary warming shelter was set up.
Chris Mitchell, captain of the rescue squad, said there had been surprisingly few wrecks on the days following the snowstorm. He said folks tend to drive more carefully.
The majority of calls to the rescue squad had come from folks needing life-saving medicines, rides to doctor appointments, or help getting unstuck from the deep snow, he said.
The rescue squad also provided rides for health professionals to get to their jobs at the hospital or nursing home.
Another winter storm warning was issued for Friday night and Saturday, but temperatures warmed sooner than expected, with much of the precipitation coming in the form of rain.
However, that created another set of problems, with the water pipes bursting and some flooding.
Temperatures were back in the single digits at the first of the week and were expected to remain below freezing for most of the week.