This is why I think something like mastodon works really well for government, public works or any service that wants Twitter/Facebook like notifications without all the bullshit like having to deal with all negatives of having those accounts.
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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Mildly Infuriating
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More options in general would be nice. Sign up for email or something even!
Four options isn't enough? I get you didn't get it, but do you want them to knock on your door?
I subscribe to a service called Nixle, and the water company will email and phone is anytime there is an issue. I'm not sure what else they're supposed to be doing. If you're hard to find you're hard to find. Definitely sucks to find out there's a boil water advisory after you've been chugging water all morning though.
You shouldn't need an app or have to subscribe to a third party service to know if your water is safe to drink.
I informed someone that had recently moved to the area that there was a water main break and you had to boil water. They brought me a jug of water from Walmart as a thanks. Now we are married. Go tell random attractive people.
I'll keep that in mind if I ever get divorced!
That can easily be done by cell broadcasts (which can absolutely have different stages of priority nowadays), mass-SMS (every cellphone that first registers in an affected area gets a SMS, via designated disaster management apps, by placing handouts on peoples doors (you usually do that by identify people at risks e.g. homecare patients, then you go by high to low risk areas - depending on the search of the contamination) and last but not least a few trucks with loudspeakers (even regular cop cars do) do wonders.
What happens here if someone is not at home when called, is not an actual customer of the water company, etc.?
There are dozens of better ways than how this was handled in OPs case.
Source: I consult community and disaster response organisations on this stuff.
Ideally the advisory is going out over the radio too. People will hear it while driving and then spread by word of mouth.
They had four methods in OP's case. OP describes "a system no one knows about," which sounds like a system OP doesn't know about. They call you, unless you refused to put your phone number on your account, and then what? Are they supposed to go door to door? It's an emergency.
The entitlement here is staggering. If you want to be informed, you gotta give them a way to inform you. If you hide away for whatever reason, you run the risk of missing announcements.
I literally told you the actual scientific approach that is currently used by disaster response management professionals. The methods used in OPs case are utterly insufficient and potentially dangerous. I also gave you an example why.
So...
through phone if you have a phone on your water account, through a system no one knew existed
I interpreted this as one system. So its:
-
Water website, you'd have to happen to stumble upon
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Obscure opt-in phone system
-
Facebook
If that's the case, the complaint is reasonable, as the water service is basically assuming Facebook (and word of mouth) are the only active notifications folks need.
But yeah, if OP opted out of SMS warnings or something, that's more on them.
I didn't get text alerts because I am not the person who pays the water! Also those only happen if you have a phone connected to the account which is absolutely not required and several people in the area did not know about.
The "system no one knew about" was the township app. Which is a thing, sort of. Sometimes works. Different system. Four total things. Website, Facebook, text alerts if you are paying for water and have a phone connected, and a township app. Which the township apparently recently changed to a different app thing.
Yeah, see, that makes sense. A random app and an optional account number are not reliable notification systems. They can't just assume everyone will opt into those.
Honest question, what method of alerting would you have suggested? Looks like they tried 4 different things at once - none perfect, but I'm not sure any would be
we should combine whatever system with weather alerts
Phone is really the only one of those that’s helpful. It’s not really considered common practice to regularly check your water companies website or Facebook and for something as important as a water boil advisory it should be sent out at least through email in addition to phone
Email, text, neighbors app, nextdoor. There is even the rave alerts that many cities use. No reason why a notice can't be blasted on all channels in emergencies.
Personally I'd like to sign up for email alerts. I'm not the person who pays the water bill, so I won't get the phone alerts. But I'm still living here, so it would be nice to still get those somehow.
Everyone has email, and text is also a good option.
My local town alerts come through both, with more urgent alerts like if a fire starts nearby through an automated phone call.
I would have preferred it in the form of a limerick, but that’s why I listen to NPR.
If you live near Pawtucket,
Do not drink from the communal bucket.
The local water stinks,
So I only drinks,
Bottled water or vodka, so fuck it.
This comment sounds like Carl Kasell.
The town crier and carrier pigeons, as well as the Nextdoor app. Idk who uses Nextdoor, but 30 other people could've known.
Town Crier
Wow. We had that once. Well, we were advised to not drink tap water at all. For us someone with a megaphone drove through every street and neighbours made sure that everyone got that.
We go the extra mile. It will makes us look good. Therefore we only announce it on corporate social media.
through phone if you have a phone on your water account
To be fair, that should cover like 95% of people. Very rare these days to be able to set up a utility WITHOUT a phone number.
The phone number is not required for the accounts here. Also there's a lot of people that misses. It only covers one person in our three person household, and only one person in my mother's five person household. Luckily the person who pays the water here told us. My mother's husband absolutely would not tell three of the other people in their household until after someone drank the water cause not his job to let people know he says.
cause not his job to let people know he says.
wow.... that's.... sorry you have to live with someone like that.
Despite what my mother's husband thinks, I've never been a member of his household. My twin, who was, lives with me now.
He'd tell my mother, but not his own sons or my twin. (My mother, once she knew, would have told everyone else in the household. Luckily they've never had a water boil down there)
I don't like him very much.
yeah seems like a charming troglodyte. chudworthy.
Useless with getting news out, useless in preventing a dictator from taking control.
American militias as mentioned in the second amendment are really no actual use, are they?
Must be nice to have your problem. During COVID-19, my county health department kept sending area alarms with emergency messages during COVID-19, most of which contained no actual useful information about threats or change of status to regulations and were just reminding people to social-distance.
They also robo-called landlines with the same messages.
Eeey complain about it and it's been lifted. Which I learned from spam refreshing the website because I am not the water bill person.