As a result of a winter storm in Austin, Texas, water supply in the city dropped to nearly half of it’s normal levels. However, Austin Water delayed asking residents to conserve their water. Because of this delay in communication, residents were under the impression that in spite of the power and water outages caused by the storm, water supply was not disrupted. This misinformation led to part of the city losing their water.
When Austin Water notified customers that there was nearly no water and issued a boil mandate, residents were shocked. With a steady increase in the demand of water, caused in part by Austin Water asking residents to drip their faucets to combat freezing pipes, the water company made a twitter post ensuring residents that everything was OK at the same time that water levels in the city were half of what they normally are.
