ISLE OF WIGHT, Va. — People in the Carrollton area of Isle of Wight County woke up without running water Wednesday morning.
The issue persisted for a few hours.
The Isle of Wight County Facebook posted about the outage a few minutes after 6 a.m., and later said the problem with the water had been fixed around 8:30 a.m.
"It will take some time for the water to be fully restored," the Facebook post says. "Some areas will get it back before others, but it’s flowing!"
Assistant County Administrator Donald Robertson said officials are still investigating the matter, but he said staff encountered two issues.
First, an automatic control valve in the county’s water system stopped working properly and cause complications with the area's water pressure, according to Robertson.
He also said the system is designed to automatically alert county staff of any problems, but that did not happen, either.
"Our staff for whatever reason did not get a notification. Typically, they would have been noticed before customer called us, and that did not happen," he said. "So, we are investigating both issues, along with what happened with the valve."
When customers called the Department of Public Utilities, it directed people to call the sheriff's office for water emergencies -- but because the outage was so widespread, officials said that was not needed.
"The proper authorities have been notified of the situation. Please refrain from calling the Isle of Wight County Sheriffs Office Non-Emergency line for this situation," they wrote.
In a comment, the county also said: "Schools are aware of the issue and are handling appropriately. They will remain open for now."
13News Now took several calls from people in the area who weren't able to brush their teeth, flush toilets or shower.
It's not clear yet what caused the initial issue with the flawed automatic control, said Robertson.
County officials are investigating what caused the system to stop working.
Roughly 3,000 customers were impacted, including residents and businesses.
The water is safe to drink, said Robertson.
However, it may take longer for water pressure to return to normal in some areas of the county.
“The system takes a little bit of time for everything to get back to normal pressure levels," said Robertson.
Robertson said county officials are hopeful service will return to normal for all customers by the end of the day.
He encouraged people in the area to register for the Isle of Wight County Alert System, which will automatically notify residents of issues, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons and evacuations of buildings or neighborhoods.
Sign up and learn more about the alert notification system here.