Richmond, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) - City officials have released a draft of the “after-action” report detailing issues that led to January’s water outage.
The engineering firm that led the investigation, HNTB, said there were several key shortcomings that contributed to a lack of preparedness for a power outage.
Ultimately, a power outage started a domino effect of technological failures at the facility. Area residents were left without water for several days.
The draft report includes recommendations for developing more extensive preparedness plans, including increasing staffing levels during severe weather, checking and replacing equipment and establishing protocols about the notification of counties that rely on water from Richmond’s plant.
The report reiterates some previously known details, such as that the plant was “operating in ‘Winter Mode’” at the time. Officials said this meant that a second available power source didn’t activate when the plant lost power.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula previously described the city’s communications with surrounding localities as “appropriate” – however, the assessment says “discussions at that time did not adequately convey the severity of the situation.”
Hanover County, for example, was not contacted until roughly eight hours after the outage. The draft report says this was due to a lack of up-to-date contact information.
City officials said a “final comprehensive” report will follow but did not specify when it will be released.
