Charlotte’s communication breakdown following a major water outage

The advisory said that customers who experienced low water pressure or a loss of water “can boil water used for human consumption” out of an abundance of caution.

Around 1:30am, Charlotte Water sent a tweet with stronger language, saying affected residents “should boil water used for human consumption.”

Why it matters: The city’s water-boil advisory came long after many residents had prepared dinner, brushed their teeth and gone to bed. If they weren’t on social media or on a Charlotte Water list serve, it’s difficult to say how many locals would’ve found out about the advisory in a timely fashion.

• People who followed active outlets and journalists on social media had an idea what was going on, but those who are more disconnected likely didn’t.
• For hours, key questions about the situation remained unanswered. Should residents worry if they drank the water before seeing the advisory? When will all water be safe to drink?

Without a clue, customers throughout the area called 9-11 to report the outage Monday night. But both the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department and Mayor Vi Lyles took to social media to implore people to only use 9-11 for emergencies.

• Residents instead should use 3-1-1, officials say.

In an email, Charlotte Water spokesperson Cam Coley said Tuesday morning that the department used “social media, Charlotte’s Emergency Notification syste CharMeck Alerts, and two press releases” to get the word out about the outage.

“We have not received any reports of illness due to drinking water before or during the advisory,” Coley said.

Between the lines: You have to be signed up to receive alerts about this sort of emergency situation, as city councilman Larken Egleston noted on Twitter. The city operates the alert system through a service called Everbridge. You can sign up here.

• Local restaurateur Lesa Kastanas said she didn’t get an alert until about 7:30pm. Others say alerts they received made no mention of boiling water.

“I expressed with the city manager that we need to be better prepared to disseminate accurate information to people when we’re dealing with issues like this,” Egleston told Axios. “Hopefully we can use this as a learning lesson.”

• Egleston lauded Charlotte Water for addressing the outage quickly but said that when it comes to communications, “there’s definitely room for improvement.”

The latest: Crews are still investigating the cause, but were able to close valves to isolate the break. All water service has been restored.

At 11:30am Tuesday, nearly 18 hours after the pipe break, the city held a press conference to address the situation. Charlotte Water director Angela Charles told reporters that the pipe that broke dates back to 1955 and is a transmission main. That means it transports water from the plant to the rest of the city’s service areas.

Charles said the city is looking at how to improve its communication strategy with customers through technology.

“We feel like we responded quickly. But there’s room for improvement once the decision is made to get that information out to our customer base,” Charles said.

The bottom line: The city’s handling of the outage highlights a major — and potentially harmful — communication breakdown. It underscores the need for clear and quick messaging during an ongoing emergency.

• What if instead of water it was a chemical spill or other dangerous situation? How would the city communicate quickly to warn residents?