Customers will receive a text to inform them they are enrolled in the city’s new reporting service. Text messages can be sent to and from 512-930-8400 to relay power outages and learn of updates. While water outages must still be reported by phone, future upgrades will incorporate water outages into the system, according to the city of Georgetown.
“When services are interrupted, folks need information quickly, and this system lets us do that,” City Manager David Morgan said in a press release. “It’s critical for us to be able to send and receive power outage messages in real time, and we know our customers are looking forward to having a more automated process to report and learn updates about outages.”
The city is asking customers to still track water and electric outages on its online outage maps and only report outages not already shown. The city will not automatically send out text messages related to power outages. Rather, customers may send text messages to the system to report and receive updates.
Georgetown will use phone numbers associated with customers’ utility accounts to automatically enroll citizens in the system. Customers can visit https://css.georgetown.org to update utility phone numbers. Residents may also text “ELECTRIC” to 512-930-8400 to be included in the system.
“The success of this service depends on our customers making sure they’ve given us the contact information for their accounts,” Morgan said.
