General
Water Outage in Richmond, Va., Is Expected to Last Until Friday
The winter storm on Monday knocked out power at the city’s water plant, leaving thousands under a boil water advisory for days.
When officials in Richmond, Va., announced a citywide boil water advisory on Monday, residents buckled down for an unpleasant day or two. They are still buckled down.
On Wednesday, officials said that people would most likely need to keep boiling their water until at least Friday, as a disruption that began with a brief power outage at the water plant has led to a dayslong engineering challenge and a citywide relief operation.
“I know this has been an extremely trying time to not have drinking water, to not be able to shower, to not be able to wash dishes — and that, however many hours we are into this, the frustration is rising,” Mayor Danny Avula, who took office last week, said at a news conference.
The Richmond water plant serves about 227,000 customers, including residents in surrounding counties, said Dwayne Roadcap, the director of the Office of Drinking Water at the Virginia Department of Health.
People in the area were adapting this week, eating off paper plates and using baby wipes to keep clean. “I’ve been melting and collecting snow in order to flush the toilet,” said Danny Kraft, 33, who lives in the Richmond suburbs.
Mr. Kraft said he had spent the morning delivering water bottles to people who did not have private transportation. “I met a lot of people who were really panicked because they just didn’t have water,” he said, “and they had heard nothing about how they could get water.” He said he was going that afternoon to the local Jewish Community Center to take his first shower in days.
