Major incident declared as thousands without water in Kent and Sussex
A major incident has been declared after tens of thousands of families were left without water in the South East.
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Storm Goretti and the cold snap have been blamed - as well as a power cut at a South East Water pumping plant.
The firm has told 14 affected postcodes in East Grinstead, Frant and Tunbridge Wells that water supplies may not return until Tuesday at the earliest.
Residents are being given bottled water. A number of schools in Kent and Sussex are closed due to the lack of water.
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Linden Kemkaran, leader of Kent county council, said: “A major incident has been declared on the basis that more households have been impacted in the last 24 hours and because we are putting additional arrangements in place to prepare for further potential disruption.”
Steve Andrews, incident manager for South East Water, said: “We are very sorry to all our customers in Kent and Sussex who have been experiencing issues with their water supply. Our focus is entirely on returning supplies to our customers as soon as possible.”