Power outage in Paris affects local businesses

Paris, Ky (WTVQ) — For 17 hours time stood still for business owners on Thursday afternoon.

According to locals– those with Kentucky Utilities lost power.

One shop owner, Lyria Miller of Lil’s Coffee House, lost power and had to close early. She said her main worry was the food in her fridge.

“Was hoping that it would flicker back on within the hour, it didn’t,” said Miller. “So then we closed the doors obviously and started thinking about today. Because my refrigerators can hold temperature for about 6 hours at the most. So after about 3 hours, I started calling friends and family. Who has empty refrigerators.”

Lyria and her staff then spent the next four hours loading up the food and taking it to friends’ refrigerators and filling them up. In the morning they did the opposite, loading and bringing the food back to the restaurant.

Jessica Mattingly, at Happy People Coffee, was not so lucky.

“Yes we did lose some because we have a lot of food and beverages that have to stay very very cold,” said Mattingly. “So, we pretty much took care of that this morning. We put ice in all of the refrigerators and most of it kept.”

And while not all businesses lost products, the majority lost business because they had to close early.

Stores downtown stayed open as long as they could. One even gave people flashlights while they shopped.

“We had flashlights like this and they were able to walk around for a little while and look at things,” said Lyn Laton, owner of Loch Lea Antiques.

One thing they all wished they could have, should this happen again is a generator.

All things were back to normal today.

The city of Paris declined to comment on what caused the power outage.