This month on “Wonderful Water,” join 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey for a conversation with OWASA safety manager Steve Naylor about hurricane season, mitigation efforts, preparedness and more!
“When we think about storing water before a storm, a lot of people focus on drinking water and forget how important potable water is for other uses,” said Naylor. “Remember to save enough for flushing toilets, preparing baby formula, et cetera. I will say this very important: when you see flood waters, a mere six inches of fast moving flood water can knock over an adult. Just 12 inches of water can carry away most cars. It’s very dangerous. So the big takeaway is, when you come upon flooded areas, ‘turn around, don’t drown.'”
When emergency situations do arise, there are communication structures in place to ensure people find out as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“OWASA will issue alerts to our customers through our contact system. If we have a phone number or email for you or for, we will certainly reach out via that system. It’s a mass notification system that works very well, and it’s used on a very regular basis,” said Naylor. “We ask that anyone who pays an OWASA bill, please keep your contact information up to date. That is extremely important in this day and age. Folks may switch cell phones, numbers may change. … That way you will receive that notification. If you do not pay a bill necessarily directly to OWASA but you rent or lease property in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro areas, you can always sign up for what’s known as OC Alerts.”
Orange County Alerts information and signup can be found here
You can listen to the full conversation below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does in our community.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents use roughly 7 million gallons of water a day, and “Wonderful Water” is a monthly conversation sponsored by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority highlighting its work to keep our community growing and water flowing.
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