Delayed and poor communication from the city of Richmond to Henrico during the January water crisis made the county's water issues worse and longer lasting. That's the big takeaway from the independent report the county commissioned to review its response to the crisis,

A clearer picture is starting to emerge of the communication, or lack thereof, between Richmond’s former DPU director about the severity of the city's water crisis.

Henrico officials reviewed reports Tuesday morning on the county’s response to January’s water crisis. The reports were compiled by independent consultants from Whitman, Requardt and Associates, and AquaLaw.

Richmond residents can now apply for financial assistance through a fund established to support those impacted by the water outage earlier this month.

Despite a “Herculean effort” to maintain water service to its residents during last month’s water crisis, Henrico County’s attempts were hampered at various points by a series of errors by – and lack of prompt communication from – City of Richmond officials,