Why utility operations fail during storms (and what to fix before the next one)
Wildfires. Tornados. Hurricanes. Floods. Ice storms.
You can’t control any of them. What you can control is how messy things get when it hits your system.
Most of the industry conversation jumps straight to infrastructure: burying lines, hardening assets, big capital projects, etc. Those matter… no question.
But when a storm rolls through, the first cracks usually don’t show up in the ground. They show up in your day-to-day operations.
The truth is:
A lot of what breaks during a storm was already a little broken before it started.
If you’ve been through one of these weather events, as almost all our customers have, you’ve seen it:
- Field crews double-checking whether they have the most up-to-date information
- Office staff piecing together info from multiple systems
- Phones lighting up because customers don’t have another way to get answers
- Updates lagging behind the reality on the ground
- Customers hammering the utility on social media for not communicating well enough
On their own, none of these feels catastrophic.
But together, they slow everything down right when speed matters most.
So, what actually holds up when the weather turns ugly for your community?
Here’s what a lot of industry articles get wrong: this unpreparedness isn’t fixed with a long-term capital plan alone. More than anything, you must start by tightening how operations run today.
- Give teams a clear, current view of what’s happening
- Keep field and office aligned without extra back-and-forth
- Let customers handle simple tasks on their own when call volume spikes
- Make it easy to communicate and collect payments, even when things aren’t running smoothly (or when disaster strikes)
- Reduce the number of systems that need to cooperate under pressure
It’s not complicated. It just has to work when things aren’t ideal.
And why does this keep happening?
Most utilities don’t struggle because they lack tools. They struggle because their tools don’t stay in sync when it matters.
When your meter data, customer accounts, notifications engine, and service activity are all connected, people don’t have to guess. When they’re not connected, guessing becomes the norm, and people fill the gaps manually.
That works… until it doesn’t.
The teams that come out of these weather events in better shape tend to have one thing in common: fewer gaps to fill in the first place.
Because when things stay connected, the storm doesn’t get to decide how messy it becomes for your utility.
More Efficient. More Effective. Greater ROI.
When you have the right tools for the job, everybody wins — especially your customers. Reduce or eliminate pain points, dramatically increase operating efficiency, and provide greater service. Fill out our contact form or call 800.455.3293 to learn more about how United Systems can help!