RICHMOND, Va. (AP) 鈥� Theresa Fulgham wasn鈥檛 going to wait any longer. After days without water in Virginia鈥檚 capital that prompted some residents to melt snow to flush toilets, it was time to get cleaned up.
鈥淲e need a shower today. Enough is enough,鈥� Fulgham, a live-in caregiver, said Thursday as she escorted her client to a YMCA with running water.
Nerves were frayed in Richmond, home to 200,000 people, as repair crews rushed to get the city's water system working again after it was knocked out Monday during a . By Thursday morning, brown sludgy water began to trickle back into many pipes, however it remains unsafe to drink without boiling 鈥� even where it鈥檚 running clear.
In complex city water systems like Richmond, getting pressure back still doesn鈥檛 mean the tap water is safe to drink. Residents will need to keep boiling their water until at least Friday, the city said.
Registered nurse Latoya Jones said her daughter put snow in the bathtub to help flush toilets. Buying paper plates helped minimize water usage.
鈥淲ashing dishes, that鈥檚 a joke right now,鈥� Jones said. She might take her kids to a local high school that had water.
鈥淥ur next family field trip will be to take a shower,鈥� Jones said, smiling. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 make this stuff up.鈥�
At a dozen YMCA locations, more than 4,000 non-members have come for hot showers in recent days, said Jody Alexander, who leads the organization in Greater Richmond.
Liz Canfield was one of them.
鈥淲hat a lovely experience,鈥� Canfield said. 鈥淭he five minutes I had was glorious.鈥�
The city is distributing bottled water at 11 sites and delivering it to older residents and others unable to get to those locations. More than 45,000 gallons of bottled water were handed out Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, residents filled jugs with water from a tanker truck.
Susan Stevens said she found herself constantly turning on her tap, 鈥渇orgetting that it鈥檚 not going to run or it comes out in a small trickle, but that I can鈥檛 use it.鈥�
Miguel Vasquez turned on his sink and saw water trickle out for the first time in days.
鈥淚 am just wondering, hopefully, that there will be some clarity on why this happened,鈥� Vasquez said. 鈥淚 have a lot of questions, because obviously the storm wasn鈥檛 that bad.鈥�
Mayor Danny Avula would like to know too. The outage occurred less than a week after he took office.
After a power failure at the water plant, a battery backup system that could have kept water flowing stopped working, Avula said.
The water system is now fully pressurized and tests for bacteria have started, he said at a news conference Thursday. The boil-water advisory will be lifted once two sets of tests, taken 16 hours apart, come back negative.
鈥淚 am as 鈥� or more 鈥� interested than anybody about how we make sure that this doesn鈥檛 happen in the future,鈥� the mayor said.
Fulgham, who also has been melting snow and ice to flush toilets and using bottled water to brush teeth, was ready to give Avula a pass on the problem.
鈥淲e need to work on the infrastructure,鈥� Fulgham said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to blame this on Avula like I鈥檝e seen a lot of people, but we need some work done. The whole system needs need to be redone.鈥�
The crisis impacted neighboring Henrico and Hanover counties, which both issued boil-water advisories days after Richmond鈥檚 outage.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin acknowledged that 鈥減eople are angry and frustrated and tired.鈥�
The start of the state legislative session due to the lack of water at the Capitol. But Youngkin told reporters it wasn鈥檛 a major concern 鈥� the work will get done eventually.
鈥淭here are a lot more important issues with this water crisis right now,鈥� he said.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. AP writer Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.
Olivia Diaz, Allen G. Breed And John Raby, The Associated Press
