In this interview at AWWA ACE26, WaterWorld editor-in-chief Mandy Crispin and PhD candidate Brooke Goggins discuss utility communication strategies during extreme water service disruptions, drawing lessons from Asheville, North Carolina’s response to Hurricane Helene. Goggins shares findings from her research on how Asheville communicated with customers throughout a 53-day water outage, highlighting the importance of using multiple communication channels when traditional infrastructure such as electricity, Wi-Fi and cellular service is unavailable.

The conversation explores how utility leaders translated complex drinking water concepts, such as high turbidity levels, into plain language through analogies, visuals and repeated messaging that customers could easily understand. Goggins also explains how community briefings became a critical tool for maintaining transparency, allowing residents to ask questions and receive real-time updates even when utility officials could not provide definitive restoration timelines.

She concludes with practical preparedness recommendations for utilities, emphasizing dedicated communication leadership, redundant communication methods and the need to continuously adapt messaging as conditions change during disaster response and recovery.

Timestamps

• 00:46 – How Asheville communicated during the first 24–48 hours after Hurricane Helene
• 01:38 – Translating complex water quality issues like turbidity into plain language
• 02:25 – Balancing transparency and public expectations without firm restoration timelines
• 03:31 – Communication strategies utilities should prioritize during major service disruptions
• 04:17 – How community briefings influenced customer engagement and trust
• 05:03 – Three communication preparedness actions every utility should implement