Good Planning Comes to the Rescue When an Emergency Occurs Emergencies will happen. Crises are self-inflicted. By Robert Cullick, Robert Cullick Communications
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hen someone using our product becomes ill, or a considerable number of people lose service, or fish are killed by a sewage spill, there’s a fine line between an emergency and a crisis. In the water business, we survive emergencies all the time — backhoe operators break lines, hurricanes and tornadoes disrupt service, we issue boil water notices, there are billing fiascoes and even extended outages. The customer may be inconvenienced and even become irritated, especially as recovery time increases. A crisis is different. A crisis occurs when the emergency is not communicated crisply, to the right people, with the right messages about risk. Then, confidence and trust disappear as quickly as a sand castle at high tide. An emergency can last hours, days or weeks. A crisis may be forever. Trust, once broken, is difficult to repair. Water systems are complex and so are water issues. Consider the case from late Summer 2020 of the East Texas town of Lake Jackson, where a six-year-old boy died of infection with Naegleria fowleri. The water source for the town was blended, making source-tracing difficult. There’s no rapid or routine test for the amoeba, described by the news media as “brain-eating.” And notification about the child’s hospitalization came many days after he first fell sick. Eventually, the fatal infection was traced to a water feature at a city park. It attracted regional, state and national news interest. Yet the Lake Jackson case was simple compared to the worst water-quality crisis in recent times, Flint, Michigan. A public health crisis there started in 2014, when a water supply element was switched without concordant changes to anti-corrosion chemistry. Lead levels spiked and an estimate 6,000 to 12,000 children were exposed to high levels of lead in 2016. Criminal prosecutions, political upheaval and a federal disaster declaration ensued. While the 8
Quench — 2020 - Issue 5
source of water was switched again and pipes were replaced, customers still express doubt over the safety of the water; some see racial underpinnings in the government’s mishandling of both the emergency and the communications around it. Mistrust was more corrosive than the water itself. Here’s the thing to remember – there’s a direct emotional connection between a frightening emergency such as Lake Jackson, Texas, and the deep crisis of Flint, Michigan. For decades, it will be that way in the public mind. The public doesn’t understand water treatment and distribution. When something goes wrong, fear and self-preservation click in, controlling public discourse. Flint is always going to be in the back of the public’s perception of a water emergency. Lake Jackson was an emergency; Flint became a crisis. One can easily careen into the other. What can water professionals do? Preparation is key. Know who will speak for the utility and train them. At any time, there must be one spokesperson. The spokesperson needs clear rules of the road and training. In an emergency, there will always be someone – perhaps a Board member or attorney – who advises the spokesperson to say as little as possible. It’s a bad idea, born out of the fear of the moment. There should be good alignment between the Board, the General Manager and the utility’s legal advisor, if needed. This should be spelled out in an emergency management plan with a strong communications element. It’s too late to begin this when you’re in the midst of an emergency. Positional power is important, but the spokesperson does not have to be the General Manager; it must be someone who is trustworthy and plainspoken without being condescending. The spokesperson needs to face the public, employees and customers as well as the news media. A
