BARDSTOWN, Ky. — As snow falls and hits the Bardstown pavement, parking lots of nearby grocery stores are packed.
UPDATE: As of Friday morning, the water shortage emergency status has been lifted. More information here.
Inside the stores, the end of the checkout lines were in the shopping aisles, and some shelves were completely empty.
One grocery store delivery driver described Thursday as "chaotic" to WHAS11 News.
And in the middle of a water shortage emergency, empty shelves where bottled water used to be is less than ideal.
"There was actually no water whatsoever," shopper Travis Johnson said. "I reckon I might go out of county for water just for my daily drinking."
Some shoppers made the extra effort to order bottled water ahead of time Thursday morning.
But with the minor panic comes some progress on the city's front.
"We can successfully operate our system at three pumps," Bardstown City administrator Aaron Boles said.
The polar blast caused a pipeline in the basement of the water treatment plant to burst, causing flooding on Wednesday and for officials to shut the water treatment plant down for several hours.
While it's back up and running, it still has some catching up to do.
"The tanks were just so low, not only throughout the city but even at the plant itself," Boles said. "It's just going to take a bit to get those filled back up."
City officials, like Boles, have asked every Bardstown customer to be conservative with their water use as the area takes a hit of winter weather.
With the city still under emergency water shortage status Thursday night, people in Bardstown made the necessary adjustments and are making do.
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