This month on “Wonderful Water,” join 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell for a conversation with Sarah Pickhardt — deputy emergency services coordinator for Orange County Emergency Services — and Blake Hodge, communication specialist at OWASA. As winter approaches and hurricane season continues, discussions about emergency preparedness at all levels are important to staying safe — especially as the board of commissioners has declared September to be Orange County Preparedness Month.

“I think we’ve seen, both across the nation and even locally, especially over the last year or two, we’ve had a pretty significant increase in both the frequency and the severity of disasters,” said Pickhardt. “We can best protect ourselves and our families by taking a few very simple steps of creating an emergency plan with your loved ones, building that emergency kit to have just in case, and then staying informed to the local threats, hazards and what’s happening in our community to keep us us safe.”

As part of staying informed, residents and OWASA customers are encouraged to sign up for OC Alerts — a system for emergency notifications delivered via phone, text and email.

“Being prepared from our side of things at OWASA means being prepared to continue delivering essential water and sewer services to customers, to the best of our abilities throughout the course of whatever event we’re facing at the time,” said Hodge. “… Signing up for OC Alerts is a big part of things from our side as well, so that we can communicate with customers if you are experiencing a service interruption.”

Pickhardt and Hodge also spoke about some general guidelines and recommendations to keep in mind while putting together emergency kits and preparing for inclement weather, as well as a new map on OWASA’s website with specific focus on Boil Water Advisories and keeping customers informed.

You can listen below 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.