Richmond 311 flood calls show uneven reporting, response times

June 5, 2026, VPM

A review of Richmond flood-related 311 calls found that residents in some parts of town report issues less frequently and face much longer wait times for a response from the city.

Julia Norton, a University of Richmond student, reviewed calls between June 2018 and October 2025 with supervisor Stephanie Spera as part of the Go With the Flow community science initiative. Spera, a program coordinator at UR’s Environmental Studies Program, works on that initiative along with the nonprofit Southside ReLeaf.

Norton and Spera found that flooding-related 311 calls had widely varying response times, depending on where in the city they were placed.

The majority of neighborhoods with an average response time over one year are located in Richmond’s Southside. In the city’s 9th Council District, Norton explained, “the average response time was 494.78 days when some of the other districts were less than 150 days.”