I won't rehash all the reasons why 311 contact centers should be where residents call, email or text to get information related to disasters.  That is a topic that has been well covered in past discussions.  But I will share with you some of the reasons that residents need to contact 311 for non emergency information or requests rather than the mayor, the city manager or your friend who works in public works.  Although we all know calls will continue to go to these other sources, it actually doesn't help residents but rather hurts the overall response.

Recently, we had two back to back rain events, that produced heavy rain with more flooding than actual hurricanes of past years.  The City of Newport News currently has a Public Works Call Center,while the 311 Contact Center is being developed and was fielding calls for days after the event.  However, calls were also going to elected officials, the city manager and individual, department employees directly.  These calls were responded to as well but because they weren't logged into the software system, they weren't included in statistical information until later, if at all.  This prevented the department from having an overall, accurate picture of exactly what happened and where it happened, which is important if you are looking to see if there were any infrastructure issues or if you are researching potential future solutions.

In addition, if all calls come to one place, crews can be dispatched strategically, rather than zig zagging across the city, which costs taxpayers more in gas and staff overtime costs.  All calls are still responded to but the effort can be coordinated for maximum efficiency and information about what was being done to address issues can be relayed to the resident.  Often, your friend in public works may not have the information to share with you the way that 311 or any centralized contact center can.

And most of the time, the elected official is going to call the same department residents should have called in the first place. They don't have magic numbers and they certainly don't have the power to make the rain stop or the flooding to go away. 

In short, these storms did a great deal of damage but also highlighted the reasons that calls during disasters always need to go to one place.   It is a lesson we unfortunately need to teach over and over.