LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some residents in Meade County who learned Monday afternoon that they would be without water for eight to 10 hours were still waiting for it to be turned back more than a day later.

About 4,000 customers of the Meade County Water District lost water pressure early Monday afternoon. Many were without water for more than 15 hours before it began to come back on. 

WDRB's Monica Harkins reports that water had been restored to all but about 1,200 customers as of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. 

Monday afternoon officials with the Meade County Water District said in a post on Facebook that the utility has been unable to keep up with increased demand amid sub-freezing temperatures. 

"We are making operational changes to address the problem. This will include cutting off parts of our service area so we can recover and fill our tanks."

The post states "this may mean that you will be without water up to eight to ten hours." A system-wide boil water advisory will be issued after water pressure has been restored, according to the post.

An earlier post urged residents to use only the water they need to use because "the demand for water is so high."

Jeff and Rachel Gripp said they didn't see any posts or receive any alerts before they were told by a friend to check their water.

"We found out pretty much when the water went out that 'hey, the water is out,'" Jeff Gripp said.

According to comments on the Facebook post, many other residents received no advance notice of the shutoff. Some people commented that they thought the problem was due to their pipes freezing and ended up needlessly paying for a plumber. 

Others wondered why they weren’t directly contacted and had to find out on a Facebook post. General Manager Brett Pyles says the utility gets its water from Hardin County, and there’s not enough available to pump it west to all three of its Meade County water tanks. 

"I wish there were other things we could do," Pyles said Tuesday morning. "We are doing everything possible that we have with our facilities, and unfortunately, we just can't produce more water out of thin air to introduce it into the system."

Pyles also said officials do plan to address communication concerns expressed by customer, and are in the process of setting up a text alert system. 

"We're not really upset by the fact that we went without water, or that there was an issue. We're just upset by the fact that we didn't really get any clear answers," Gripp said.

Pyles said the remaining 1,200 customers without water are mostly in Western Meade County and water likely wouldn't be back until end of the day Tuesday.

An updated post on the Meade County Water District's Facebook page Tuesday afternoon contained an image of a press release that explained the factors that caused the problem. Although water pressure was largely restored Tuesday afternoon, the release states that "there may be more disruptions as water is restored to areas and people are taking showers, filling containers, etc. This makes it more difficult to fill our elevated tanks." 

According to the release, the water shortage "is a result of many things culminating at the same time. Primarily customer usage has increased beyond what we can pump into the system. This is caused by people being at home for the holidays and customers, understandably, let water run from a faucet to keep their pipes from freezing." 

The release states that a second interconnect system is being put in place to avoid similar situations in the future, but it will take several months before it's complete. Pyles telling WDRB News it could even be two years.

The release directs residents in need of drinking water to contact the office at 270-422-5006 "and we will assist as best we can." 

A boil water advisory will remain in effect until further notice. Once the advisory is lifted, customers will be notified "via Facebook, radio, and Meade County E911 CodeRed notification system."

Residents who need to add their phone numbers to the CodeRed notification system can sign up by CLICKING HERE.

NOTE: Brandenburg residents that are customers of Brandenburg Water Works have not been affected by the issue. Those customers will not be subject to any boil water advisories issued by the Meade County Water District. 

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