HOPEWELL, Va. -- Residents in the Hopewell District won't have to boil their water before using it, and can return to normal water usage for the first time in almost a week.
Starting Friday at 7 a.m., Virginia American Water said they have lifted the boil water advisory for the 9,500 customers in the area.
They did say customers should, however, flush their water systems by running a cold water faucet for three to five minutes.
Officials also said customers should flush their automatic ice makers by making at least three batches of ice, run water softeners through a regeneration cycle and run water drinking fountains for one minute.
Customers first lost water on Sunday due to a "catastrophic failure" at the Virginia American Water company plant.
Officials blamed a power outage at the plant from last weekend's ice storm for the failure -- but after Dominion Energy fixed the electricity issue, equipment failure at the plant caused a second outage.
Residents struggled without water for several days, while officials distributed bottled water to those in need.
