LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Many people in the City of Paris woke up Thursday morning with no water in their homes.
Several businesses downtown were unable to open their doors.
Happy People Coffee Company is one of them, posting a sign on their door that they will be closed until the water comes back on.
It caught staff members off guard to know they likely wouldn’t be working today.
“I learned when one of my employers sent me a text message informing me that today was going to be a little bit different,” Happy People Coffee employee Bradford Cotter said.
“We can’t brew coffee. We can’t brew tea. We probably can’t even let people use our bathrooms.”
The reason for the closures and lack of water is a water main break.
According to the Paris City Manager, the 16-inch break happened around 3 a.m. near Winchester Road.
The issue also forced the Walmart in Paris to shut its doors for the day, leaving employees to stand outside with water jugs to give to people in need.
One business that did have water was Lil’s Coffee House, but it didn’t mean they weren’t affected.
There was also a boil order in place for Paris, so all water had to be boiled for safe use.
Lil’s staff did whatever they had to do to keep customers protected.
"We use chicken broth in our soup so we've boiled the water we mix with the chicken broth. We're taking precautions in the kitchen. Dishwashing everything,” Lil’s Coffee House Manager Nancy Techau said.
“The coffee gets hot enough where we don't have to worry about that. We're just taking all the precautions that we can."
While Techau is doing her best to air on the side of caution, she also sends well wishes to her fellow business owners that they soon will be able to open their doors again.
“We want people to prosper in our town so I hope they get this fixed.”
As of now, there’s no word on the cause of the water main break or how long it will take for everyone in Paris to have their water back on.
