HOPEWELL, Va. -- A power outage is being blamed for a "catastrophic failure" at the Virginia American Water Company plant in Hopewell prompting mandatory water restrictions Sunday night.
Around noon, city officials said in an email, "Dominion Energy has identified the cause of the outage affecting Virginia American Water’s Hopewell facility as an issue with one of their transformers, and they are currently working to replace the transformer and then reenergize the new transformer."
There is still no estimated time for the restoration of the city's water, according to officials.
At 9 a.m., officials said the city's backup supply in the water towers have just three to four hours of supply left.
As a result, city officials issued a mandatory water conservation order for the 9,500 customers in Hopewell as well as folks in the New Birchett Estates, Cedar Creek, Cedar Creek West, Strattford Woods and Mullberry Woods subdivisions in Prince George County in an effort to extend the backup supply.
"Please refrain from washing dishes, taking showers, washing clothes or any other unnecessary water use. This order is in place until further notice," officials urged.
Officials said workers at the water plant are working to fix the problem as "quickly and safely as possible."
"If power is not restored soon, the company may issue a boil water advisory to customer as a precautionary measure," officials warned.
As of 9:45 p.m., more than 460 customers remained without power in Hopewell, according to Dominion Energy.
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