RICHMOND, Va. — CBS 6 spoke with neighbors after the news broke that Richmond residents are under a boil water advisory.
The Mumper family tried to focus on fun in the snow Monday afternoon, but preparations were happening inside their near West End home just in case the water supply ran out.
“My wife went upstairs and filled up the bathtub," John Mumper said. "We got some water bottles just in case, so we had them.”
Meanwhile, at a downtown command center at the Richmond Public Library, city officials, including Richmond's new Mayor, Dr. Danny Avula, were working to resolve an early morning pump failure at the water treatment plant, caused by a power outage.
“The backup generators went into effect almost immediately but what we did not realize, until a little bit later, was there was a failure at a component that created some flooding at the water treatment plant and that’s impeded our ability to produce more water," Avula said.
WATCH: Is there a timeline for when Richmond water will be drinkable?
While the city was able to conserve water earlier in the day by asking surrounding counties to shift their water sources, by 2:30 p.m. the city’s reservoir was running low, leading to low water pressure and outages across the city.
A boil water advisory was in place by 4:30 p.m., as a precaution.
“When the water pressure gets low in the system, it introduces the possibility of bacteria entering pipes and making the water unsafe to drink," Avula said. "This is unlikely to happen but out of an abundance of caution, we issued a boil water advisory when pressure gets back up to the recommended range, which we expect that to happen sometime this evening, we start the process of working out with our partners at VDC to do water testing.”
City officials hope to lift the advisory in the next 24 to 48 hours.
In the meantime, roommates Lydia Gorman and Grace Cox say they’ll just weather the unexpected impact of this storm.
“I showered last night, so I’ll be fine today," Gorman said.
“Yeah, I showered before. Hopefully, it’ll be OK," Cox added.
The Mumpers say they’ll just hope for the best.
"Luckily my in laws are in Goochland, so we could go out there if we had to, but hopefully not," Mumper said.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have been impacted by this issue.
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