South island psd

hurricane isaias

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC:

There's always hysteria during hurricane situations, and this heightened state of panic and anxiety provides fertile ground for misinformation to spread.  To dispel a common misconception:

South Island PSD is NOT turning your water off in anticipation of this or any other storm. We never have. We never will.

But what if the power goes out?

We're on it. We are self-sufficient, we're proactive, and we've got that covered. We have enough generators to run all of our pumps and equipment for several days without utility power.

But what if it gets really bad?

We figured it would. No worries, this is what we do. We have crews on standby 24 hours a day.

But my aunt on Facebook said her neighbor heard that y'all turn water off just in case?

Your aunt's neighbor is wrong. See above.

Is there ANY time when you will cut my water off?

Nope, not unless you didn't pay your bill or there's a break near you that we're working on.

My water was out during Matthew though!

If your water was out during or directly after Hurricane Matthew, one of two things caused it:

1-There was a main break on your street and we had to turn that street off to bring pressure back up in our system. If that was the case, once pressure was correct, we sent crews back out to your street as soon as we could to fix the break and restore your service.

2-Your home itself had a break on your side of your water meter. We turned your meter off until you corrected your plumbing problem, then we turned it back on as soon as we were informed that it was fixed.

Note that both of these scenarios were due to effects of the storm, not in anticipation of the storm. Clearly there are times when turning your water off is necessary. We're saying that we'll never do it in anticipation. 

What's your company's gameplan after a storm?

First and foremost we aim to keep our employees safe. Once everybody is accounted for, we get to work. Service to the fire departments, hospitals, and critical services comes first. Then, we address our sewer system. Water service is not worth much if it has nowhere to go, so we make sure our sewer network is functioning properly. Then, we address the water system as a whole (mains, wells, pumps, etc). Finally, we address residential concerns on a 1 by 1 basis. 

Take a glance at SIPSD's twitter feed:

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