Emergency water outages happen. They usually occur when a water main suddenly breaks or is discovered to be leaking badly. To repair the City’s broken pipe and prevent flooding, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) water crews must shut off water immediately to customers in the affected area.
Thankfully, emergency water outages don’t occur very often. But when they do, we know impacted customers want to be notified in real time about the outage and informed when the water will be back on in their neighborhood. Letting customers know right away also helps SPU. It reduces the number of calls from customers reporting being out of water and asking when services will be restored.
For these important reasons, we recently launched a new customer notification service: “text messages for emergency water outages.” Now, Seattle residents and businesses impacted by an emergency or unplanned water outage will receive a text message as soon as water service is lost at their home or business.
Customers will receive a short text message about the emergency water outage and be directed to SPU’s water outage map and asked to contact our Operations Response Center for more information. When SPU water crews have fixed the problem that caused the emergency outage and restored water services, customers will receive a second text message informing them that their water is back on.
All SPU billing customers, as well as Seattle renters (those who don’t get an SPU bill), have been automatically opted in to receive these emergency water outage text messages. However, to ensure we can reach you by text message in the event of an emergency water outage, we ask that you verify that the cell phone number on your billing account for SPU or Seattle City Light (for renters/tenants) is correct. You can check this information by logging onto your account at City of Seattle Utility Services Website.
If you prefer not to receive text messages for emergency water outages, you can opt out of this service through your online account or by speaking to a Contact Center representative at (206) 684-3000.
We hope the number of times customers are impacted by an emergency water outage is close to never. But if it does happen, rest assure we’ll keep you informed by text message.
Please note that text notifications are for emergency water outages only. For planned water outages, SPU will continue to provide customers with a doorhanger notification at least five days in advance of the planned outage.