A decade after the infamous BP fire, Fort Saskatchewan has shown it still has a lot to learn about communicating during an emergency.

The automated phone call system put in place to answer the issues raised after the BP incident failed pretty badly during the water crisis this weekend. Messages came far too late, were repeated needlessly for some residents and failed to reach a lot of other homes.

The after-hours public works information line was quickly jammed and useless as a result.

The most reliable source of information this weekend was Mayor Gale Katchur’s personal Twitter feed. She consistently beat all other sources, including radio, and even the official City website and Twitter account.

As during the BP fire, the problem was not so much the incident itself, which was quickly resolved. The problem was with communication.

And communication is vitally important. This also happens to be the anniversary of the Slave Lake disaster. Residents of that community were given the wrong information by authorities. They were told to stay put at exactly the time when they should have been evacuating. The evacuation order, when it came, was too late. Power was already down and most residents were unable to receive the notification.

Slave Lake residents saved themselves, thanks to common sense and social media.

Social media, particularly Twitter, also played a role in spreading the message in Fort Saskatchewan this weekend. But Twitter also demonstrated a serious flaw, by helping to spread rumour as well as fact.

Very few people actually read Katchur’s original message. She only has 211 followers and maybe one in ten of those are listening at any time.

That makes Twitter a lot like a whispered message passed around a room. It can easily be garbled. Which is why the message “don’t use Fort water’ became “don’t drink Fort water” and then “Fort water is contaminated.”

In fact, of course, it never was. But a boil water order was issued some time later. Once the question was asked, officials had no choice but to consider it.

Enough whining. Here are my suggestions for improving the system next time:

1. •Improve the phone call out system. Update local phone numbers. Use it sooner. This will require a serious public campaign and money, but too many residents don’t have access to Twitter or even a computer.
   

2. •Establish an emergency information number that works and can handle large volumes. Advertise it.
   

3. •Improve the City website. Staff must be able to update or even rebuild it at any time day or night.
   

4. •Communications cannot be a committee responsibility. It must be faster than that, especially in an emergency. A senior manager on call should be in charge. There also has to be a Communications staff person available at all times to do the actual work, which means there must be more than one trained person on staff for full coverage.

City staff work to repair the pumps at Fort Saskatchewan’s main reservoir on 93 Avenue next to Highway 15.