ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A western North Carolina city is still facing water outage issues.

As many as 38,000 customers in the southern part of Asheville have had water outages or boil-water advisories in recent days after a water production plant went down amid cold temperatures Saturday.

Asheville city officials said Thursday morning that every customer should have water again within 36 hours. But on Friday afternoon, city leaders said that was not looking likely.

"Unfortunately, the goal of having full water restored to all customers by the end of the day today will not be met," Asheville city leaders said Friday. 

The plant was restarted Wednesday, but officials cautioned that the process of restoring service throughout the system would move slowly to ensure safety.

Related: Asheville resumes production at water treatment plant

More than 300 people have received water deliveries from the local government, which asked people capable of getting water from stores to do so.