Residents, businesses still impacted by water issues after winter storm
HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Community members and local businesses are still feeling the effects of the winter storm that took place last week.
This past Thursday evening, emergency management agent, Steve Deaton, stated that he was notified from Lexington Utilities of lower pressure and some leaking issues that were draining reserve stocks in the tanks in Henderson County.
“At that point is when we decided to set up some emergency water distribution sites throughout the areas that were most affected by the shortages,” Deaton said.
This mission of water distribution has been a community wide event, where faith-based churches and the local government to name a few, have come together to work and make this happen.
Deaton stated that they have delivered water in multiple places essentially on the southern and eastern end of the county for three days.
“We’ve had bottled water distribution points at the Henderson County Fire Station #4, Henderson County Fire Station #9, Henderson County Station #5, and also Scotts Hill Fire Station in Scotts Hill city limits,” said Deaton.
About 31,000 bottles of water have been distributed over that three day period.
Deaton stated that there are some restaurants in certain areas that have been affected as well.
“In the Reagan area, in the Sardis area, and in the Scotts Hill area, would all be affected by the water shortage,” Deaton said.
We spoke to the owner of Reagan Cafe, Jodie Williams, who stated how this incident has affected his business.
“We shut back down Thursday due to no water, so it has pretty well impacted the business, and I’m assuming there are other businesses around here that have been impacted too,” Williams said.
Paying customers have questioned Williams on when their favorite restaurant will return.
“I’ve had a numerous amount of calls and text messages saying ‘When will we be back open?'” said Williams.
With the boil order that Lexington Utilities has issued, Williams still plans to take his time opening when the water comes back.
“I hope to be back open and running tomorrow, but that’s probably not going to happen,” Williams said. “We’re gonna just have to play it by ear and once we do get water back on, we’ll probably still stay shut for another day until the boil notice goes out.”
Deaton had these final words of advice to say.
“I would encourage people that still do have water to be as conservative with that water as they can, because every drop that we can save is gonna be that much quicker that we’re gonna be able to get service back to the people that are without it,” said Deaton.
We reached out to Lexington Utilities and we have not received a response at this time.
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