Good Planning Comes to the Rescue When an Emergency Occurs

Good Planning Comes to the Rescue When an Emergency Occurs Emergencies will happen. Crises are self-inflicted.

By Robert Cullick, Robert Cullick Communications

When 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 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

technical person can be called upon to provide the technical perspective, if required.

One spokesperson means one spokesperson. Make sure that employees know not to use their personal social media accounts to comment or speculate. Social media is a powerful source of misinformation.

Know and practice the order of communications

Communications must be made in the right order, established by written procedures and tested for commonsense. Procedures should be in place for alerting regulators and health authorities. The Board, public officials and employees should know what you’re going to tell the public, your customers and news media. Order demonstrates respect, avoids mistakes and creates message discipline.

At one point in my career, I was responsible for communications at the Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages the Texas Colorado River. After a flood event, we discovered severe erosion at a significant dam. More rain was in the forecast. Mass evacuations seemed probable.

Starting at 5 a.m., we alerted multiple county emergency management officials, elected officials, water utilities with pipes in the river, those living closest to harm’s way, and others. We ended with the news media at noon. When reporters made their round of calls to local officials, they could find none for whom the event was a surprise.

Aggressive communications resulted in minimal public alarm. Many thousands of yards of concrete filled the erosion gaps over the next 90 days.

Know what to say in public statements – and what not to.

It’s not easy to summarize good public communications in an emergency, but here are some rules of thumb. • Use language you’d use with a family member. The moment you use a term of art, you’re going over the public’s head. Don’t be afraid to be human. Empathize with those affected. Express your concern for their health, safety or disrupted schedules. Never minimize public concern. You won’t have all the answers as an event begins. Don’t be afraid to say: “Here’s what we know. … Here’s what we expect to find out soon. We will let the public know as soon as we do get this information …” Don’t give hard deadlines when the public would be satisfied with a range of times. “We expect that service will be restored between noon and sunset” is better than “by 4 p.m.” Take responsibility for what you are responsible, but not more. Apologize if your organization failed to meet its own standards or those of a higher authority. Tell the public what you will do to fix things.

It’s mostly about social media

These days, if your organization cannot put out a public statement on two social media channels within 30 minutes, 24/7, you’re in trouble. Social media has made everyone a publisher, with no one accountable for misinformation. You cannot ignore it.

Employees must not post pictures or accounts about an event on their social media. They have instant credibility, while they may only know a portion of what is going on.

The “news desert” in Texas is growing. There are fewer reporters who cover events. That’s a bad thing, because it makes it difficult to maintain a relationship with the news media. Nevertheless, someone on your staff should have the responsibility of maintaining a media list and know how to craft a simple news release with the Five Ws: who, what, when, where and why.

Like everything in our business, good communications takes preparation and training. Emergencies are unavoidable; crises are entirely self-inflicted. That’s my take-away from four decades in infrastructure, political and crisis communications.

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Written for the Texas Rural Water Association by Robert Cullick Communications. Robert Cullick has handled electric and wet utility communications in Texas for 40 years and speaks often at TRWA conventions. He is an independent consultant operating out of Travis County, Texas, and responds to your questions at Robert.Cullick@gmail.com