Atlanta is five days into a water crisis. Some residents are comparing the outages to Atlanta’s “Snowpocalypse,” when weather and traffic combined to gridlock the region in 2014.
Brian Robinson, who was a staffer to Gov. Nathan Deal at the time, joined “Politically Georgia” on Tuesday to offer his insights about how Mayor Andre Dickens is communicating with Atlantans.
“There is a bureaucratic response to these crises,” Robinson told the hosts, adding: “No one wants to acknowledge anything bad’s going on for a period of time. And so you lose precious time.”
Robinson, now a contributor to WABE, said he has done “several crisis communications classes” in the 10 years since “Snowpocalypse.”
“What I would have suggested that (the mayor’s office) do here would be like every 20 minutes, every hour at the very least, putting something out on social media about what they are doing,” he said. “We’ve got to tell (people) that we’re engaged.”
Dickens was in Memphis, Tennessee, when the water crisis first began Friday. He returned to Atlanta on Saturday and addressed reporters that afternoon.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Riley Bunch told the hosts, “They didn’t realize that these outages were going to be so expansive until later Friday night.”
Dickens has held news conferences since then but provided limited time for questions from the media. On Monday, he attended a planned Atlanta City Council meeting to discuss the crisis.
The mayor also announced plans to establish a financial relief fund to help the many businesses that suffered losses during the outage.
Robinson said after the big “Snowpocalyspe” in 2014, Deal and his team reviewed their performance and quickly reacted to another large ice storm weeks later.
“So that second chance at that second bite at the apple was hugely important to setting people’s minds at ease,” he said.
Robinson hopes the Dickens administration does a similar review after the water main breaks are resolved.
“I think Andre Dickens has the benefit of coming into this crisis with goodwill,” Robinson said. “It can’t become a pattern — that’s when you really get in trouble.”
Wednesday on “Politically Georgia”: Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman joins the show.
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