Richardson (WBAP/KLIF) – Richardson’s water emergency ended early Friday morning, about eight hours after it began. The city lost power to its pumping facilities during a round of severe storms, packing hurricane force winds about 6:30 Thursday evening. Because the city’s water storage tanks could not then be refilled, Richardson city officials were forced to call on residents stop using water. Oncor restored the power late Thursday night. Richardson’s storage tanks were refilled, and the city’s water supply was declared back to normal about 3:00 AM Friday..
Richardson does have an emergency backup system designed to deal with just such contingencies, but it failed during the storm. Why it failed will be the focus of an official investigation.