Dirty Jersey Takes on New Meaning with Water Main Explosion

It’s 9am on Wednesday morning, the first of March, and my apartment smells like old vegetable soup and stale pizza. The dishwasher is filled with dirty dishes while pots and pans are stacked in the sink, food remains on them from days before.

The grime has been piling up since the beginning of the week. When my water pressure went from low to nonexistent late Monday morning, I thought perhaps my apartment building was doing water maintenance and forgot to notify tenants. It was not until the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, announced a State of Emergency for the town because of a water rupture on the South Side that I began to understand the magnitude of the situation.

The catalyst of the somewhat catastrophic event seems to be routine work scheduled to put gas lines underground. PSE&G, New Jersey’s power, electricity, and gas service, hired private contractors to carry out the labor and was in the beginning of many installments of the project.

At around 11am on Monday morning, at the corner of Observer Highway and Madison Street, a crew member hit a water main, resulting in an explosion that not only caused major flooding and street closures, but a loss of water for 60,000 people.

School was cancelled for the day as children were unable to use the bathroom and wash their hands afterward. Restaurants had to close as they ran out of clean dishes and cloths. Gyms locked their doors and the lunchtime runners stayed inside knowing they would not be able to shower. Suddenly, Hoboken was a ghost town. There was no car or pedestrian traffic as the ability to clean oneself became obsolete.

If it had just been a few hours, this would have still been a crazy story, but only that. Maybe I would even look at it as a fun adventure. Unfortunately, it was far longer than that.

After the first 24 hours, desperate citizens filled up nearby hotels. The water issue had only affected those living within Hoboken’s city limits—those in neighboring Weehawken and Jersey City were clear of the drama. Parents were home with kids, dogs were drinking bottled water, and all of us had greasy hair. And yet life beyond the suburb went on—very few people outside of Hoboken seemed at all aware of the emergency taking place.

It was days before those in charge of correcting the issue, a company by the name of Veolia, isolated the main and it was even longer before drinkable water returned. Though these days were the least favorite I’ve had in Hoboken thus far and PSE&G needs to take some responsibility for the extreme inconvenience, there were remarkably positive customer lessons that came out of this.

Veolia

Whether or not they were at fault for the break, from the moment it occurred Veiola made it their first priority to isolate the issue and restore water for Hoboken residents. Veolia, an energy company aiming to help clients better manage their water and recover resources from wastes, continuously provided updates to the town on the status of the problem.

Most of the time, these updates elicited more frustration than satisfaction from their audience—the announcements were rarely what citizens with no ability to flush the toilet wanted to hear. Still, the company did its best to give residents a timeline of when they could expect their water to return.

Later, when the water did come back, Veolia failed to test and report the water quality before announcing that water had returned to town. Though Hoboken’s Mayor was dismayed by this (there was a risk those who drank the water could get sick), when holding the company accountable, he couldn’t help but throw in a compliment, too:

My administration is also working to gather all of the relevant facts and information regarding Veolia, as we intend to simultaneously hold them accountable for their very clear failure to call for a timely boil water advisory, that also had a detrimental effect on our residents. This major shortcoming should not be conflated with the tireless work of Veolia’s on-the-ground crews, who did an admirable job working around the clock to isolate the broken water main, as quickly as possible.

When your customer service is dedicated enough to work for 80 hours straight, I suppose you are allowed to have a slip-up now and again.

Trader Joe’s

On the Monday of the incident, residents were notified in the late afternoon that they should not expect water back in the next 12 hours. Suddenly, the once-empty streets were flooded with people speed-walking to their closest grocery store to pick up all the containers of water they could carry.

Despite living a stone’s throw from Trader Joe’s, the grocery store was already packed with panic-stricken people by the time I got there. Customers were grabbing large water containers wherever they saw them, making me panic that I was going to have to find another way to get water. it was already out of stock of many of their largest water containers. To my surprise, though, the employees were doing all they could to ensure every person that came in left with everything they needed— without restrictions. Employees were helping bring cases of water to customers’ cars, were taking every bottle they could find out of the back rooms, and not one worker seemed concerned about themselves. They didn’t mention if their own local home had water, if there would be any left by the time they got off work, if they could do anything to prepare for the upcoming days with no running water. They didn’t even sigh or stress as they loaded cart after cart with water bottles. They just seemed like they wanted to help.

It wasn’t just heartwarming; it was exactly what customer service should be in a crisis. I am sure the employees were not having the best day of their lives, but they didn’t let it show. They focused on the crisis the customers were experiencing and tried to support them in any way they could.

The Hoboken Girl

The Hoboken Girl is a well-known local news site that was, no surprise, founded in Hoboken. They publish articles about the best eats in the area, upcoming events, budget-friendly activities, and more. Though I disagree with their stance on where you can find the best pizza and can’t say I frequent the site during my normal life, the way they handled the water main rupture made me a huge fan.

First, on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, the Hoboken Girl never seemed to get sick of answering the same questions again and again. They posted article after article with lists of stores open during the crisis and places residents could refill bottles with fresh water. When people commented on these posts with questions like, “Is Dunkin’ Donuts open?” or “Is there a place uptown I can refill my water?” the administration did not redirect them to the linked article, but kindly responded with the answer and wished them well.

Outside of social media, the site also had daily long-form articles with updates and hourly posts with any new information they knew. As with the updates directly from the Veolia team, the Hoboken Girl updates weren’t often what readers wanted to hear as they sat in their slimy apartments with grimy dishes piling up in the sink, but at least they felt like someone was looking out for them.

Lastly, once water did return, the Hoboken Girl provided information the city had shared regarding who would be held accountable for the water issues. They gave instructions for those nervous about their water quality, advice on cleaning out potentially contaminated ice makers, and even an overview of what happened throughout the last few days—for those of us too distracted by a desire to do away with the Purell and thoroughly wash our hands to do adequate research.

If the Hoboken Girl’s users had no other way of getting information and had to rely fully on the lone website, they would have had more than all the information they needed to successfully understand and persevere three days without water.

Those around me during this time without running water saw me at my crankiest. Thankfully, though, we got through it, and we learned a lot about what it means to be prepared for any emergency. Rather than being like PSE&G and sitting back while others deal with the mess you made, or even the city of Hoboken in those early hours as they provided outdoor jugs of water and smelly porta potties, be a Veolia, a Trader Joe’s, a Hoboken Girl. Go above and beyond for your customers even if there will not be an immediate cash-out or payoff. I can promise you; your customers will remember.  

Header Photo by Jimmy Woo on Unsplash  

First Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash  

Second Photo by Rob Maxwell on Unsplash  

Third Photo by Julien Maculan on Unsplash  

Fourth Photo by peng wang on Unsplash