KILLIAN - It's been several days since the water failure at Killian occurred and residents are still just now finding out days later.

Alderwomen Kimberly Gill says the board and mayor have known about these problems for years. They deal with underground pipes bursting and having to be repaired. A boil advisory is issues on a monthly basis, but no permanent resolution has been discovered.

Since this has been an issue for years, Gill's main concern is the lack of preparedness for situations such as these. She says the topic has been brought up in meetings numerous times, but always get put on the back burner.

There is no clean water in village, so town hall has been distributing cases of water to families. A notice was sent out saying residents would receive 2 cases of water per person, but when Gill arrived to pick up water for families with special needs, she was told, "we can only have 2 cases of water per household."

Gill quickly made phone calls to resolve this issue and received as much water as needed for the families.

While that issue was taken care of, Gill stressed the lack of communication between the mayor, the board, and residents of Killian.

"We need a better notification system. Not only for the town, but for the elected officials," Gill said. "It took me two days to find out about the events that are going on, and I actually found out from a resident instead of from the mayor of the Town of Killian."

When speaking to resident TJ Hoskins about his water, he showed WBRZ's team the change in color of his water the longer it ran. It started out looking clean, but as the water kept running, it turned brown with dirt and filth coming out of the faucet.

Hoskins normally boils his water to cleanse it before drinking, but even now, it's still too contaminated to drink. Not just for him, but even for his animals.

"I probably wouldn't give that to my horse," Hoskins said. "No, I wouldn't. Not the way it looks."

The cause of the water problem is still unknown, but Mayor of Killian Ronald Sharp Sr. and Livingston Parish President Randy Delatte met with Governor Jeff Landry today to sign and declare this water failure an official state of emergency.

Volunteers have been donating cases of water to help the residents of Killian survive during the water failure. DEMCO has also donated 480 packs of water tot eh community.

Residents can pick up cases of water at Killian Town Hall from 8 a.m. -11 p.m.

There is a two case per person per day limit.