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The causes and aftermath of the water crisis are still coming to light through numerous media stories, and the full impact of what and how it happened will not be known for several more weeks when the after action report commissioned by the city hopefully sheds a spotlight on the truth.
We do know through stories to date that the water plant failure had a lot of missed warning signs and “never should have happened,” according to a January 23rd Virginia Department of Health preliminary report. Which is why the city’s response to help the businesses that had to close their doors and lost money and couldn’t pay staff has so far been less than promising (beyond the fact that most of the city was without water for six days). The city held a “Water Recovery Week” with a hashtag and social media campaign to encourage people to support local businesses that had closed for days, which was followed by a small allocation for a water crisis relief fund that was suspended after three days because of a flood of requests for help and a shortage of funds.
The reality of the impact of the water crisis on businesses (not to mention people) began immediately, and some businesses were taking action even before the city ever acknowledged there was a problem. Destini Harris from NBC12 reported the day after the crisis started, places like Ariana Kabob in Carytown were thrown into confusion without warning; they closed at 4pm on January 6th, one hour after losing water and 30 minutes before the city’s announcement to boil water.
“It’s very hard, especially for small businesses,” Ariana Kabob’s Abdul Faizi said in that story on January 7th. “It’s very hard. There’s no way you can work on the kitchen, especially in the restaurant; you have to serve the customers and kitchen to cook and everything. The dishes especially, it’s really hard to operate without water.”
Yet only one day into the six day crisis, Faizi and others had no idea it would be six days without water, and the bills don’t stop just because the water does.
“You got to pay the rent, you got to pay the electricity bill, like the internet and everything. It is very hard to keep up with all those bills if you have no water and you have to close down,” Faizi said. “It’s going to be very hard, and it is a big loss.”
Also in that story, the owner of the Yellow Store convenience mart on Midlothian Turnpike knew it was going to be costly after just one day.
“We don’t ain’t got no coffee. We trying to boil some eggs or make food for the customers, and there is no water. I can’t even go to the bathroom,” Yellow Store owner Shaman Musaid said. “A lot of customer ask for food, and we can’t even make it like, we losing a lot of money right now. You could see if you put the camera in the store; no customers in the store. I don’t know nothing we could do, but we losing money like that.”
“I’m losing money right now. I don’t even make no money. I’m losing money. I take all the water I’m supposed to be selling it, and I have to use it for the back sink,” Musaid said.
Gabriella Lacombe reported in Style Weekly five days into the crisis that several restaurants knew some type of relief would be needed in the days and weeks ahead with all the sudden Covid-era like closures, uncertainty, and the city’s lackluster response out of the gate.
(A larger question might be, why does Richmond have this chronic issue and can’t seem to communicate with restaurants (and residents) in a modern and helpful way? Last January it was the meals tax fiasco in which the city chose not to tell restaurants they were being hit with massive tax bills for penalties and interest without being told
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