Social media fury erupts as Atlanta water outage continues

As much of the city waits for water service to return after a break near downtown Atlanta on Friday, residents are expressing their frustration on social media.

City officials’ communication — or lack thereof — drew most of the criticism after Atlantans woke up to no water or new updates on its restoration. Mayor Andre Dickens acknowledged the complaints and apologized for communication lapses during a news conference Saturday afternoon.

“I’ll be frank: Overnight we didn’t do the best job of communicating,” Dickens said. “We could have done a better job over the last day. And for that, I apologize for not being able to provide you with as much up-to-date information as possible.

About 12 hours passed from Friday to Saturday without any additional information, until the city of Atlanta shared on Instagram that repairs on the break near Joseph E. Boone Boulevard were complete. The post was later deleted, adding to the confusion.

Dickens made his first statement around 11:20 a.m. Saturday, posting to X, formerly Twitter, to say the city was grappling with two major ruptures. Many users responded to it saying that the update was insufficient.

Dickens has since sent a message to residents through the city’s emergency notification system.

“We know this is impacting your businesses and weekend plans, and we have mobilized all city resources to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” he said. “Thank you for your patience and please continue to follow updates on our website and social media.”

DWM also sent a message via the emergency text line.

Several elected officials recognized problems with the city’s responsiveness.

City Councilor Liliana Bakhtiari said faster updates are needed. She offered the first apology from an elected official for the delays.

City Councilor Amir Farokhi also criticized the city’s response, posting on X that residents “deserve better.”

Dickens said city and water officials now plan to provide updates every two hours until the situation is resolved.

DMN will post updates on its social media accounts, on X at @atlwatershed and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/atlwatershed. Updates will also be shared on the city’s social media pages, on X at @CityofAtlanta and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cityofatlanta.

Dickens also encouraged Atlantans to sign up for text alerts by texting “NotifyATL” to 888777.

Holly Frew, who lives in Chosewood Park, said she found the city’s communication “horrible” and confusing. She said she wished Dickens had spoken publicly sooner.

Rockwell Hunter, who lives in Grant Park, said he watched the mayor’s news conference and was happy to see him acknowledge the breakdown in communication. Hunter said he hopes the city learns from this and reflects on why the emergency notification system wasn’t used sooner.

I receive a text message through NotifyATL whenever there is a major storm in the area, as well as when trash service has been delayed,” Hunter said in an email. “But the one time there was a major incident related to a service offered by the city, it took until noon the next day to send out the notification. This confuses me.