By Joseph A. Curtatone (The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.) When the City of Somerville received the boil water order from the state this past Saturday, it sent us into rally mode. We had to rally to notify our citizens and businesses of the order. We had to rally to make sure the schools had enough water and hand sanitizer for our students on Monday. We had to rally to put together water distribution locations on Monday evening.

Yet, while the water emergency may be over, our rallying has just begun. What we discovered along the way is that despite our best efforts to reach out to our citizens and businesses via phone, television and Internet, too many people are still slipping through the cracks. We cannot send a notification call about temporary water distribution centers to someone if we don't have their phone number in our system. People without an Internet connection cannot log onto our website to get the latest updates on proper water sterilization procedures.

Worst of all, the most difficult people to notify are often the ones who most need assistance in times of crisis. Ideally, our most vulnerable citizens – the elderly, families with young children, recent immigrants – should queue up at the front of the line in times of emergency.

The truth is we got a bit lucky with this emergency. We could have had a full water ban on our hands as the heat and humidity went on the rise. And the crisis could have extended well beyond three days. Had that been the case, lives would have been on the line. People without water, or who drink contaminated water, in the middle of a heat wave … well, that is the prescription for a massive public health calamity.

The city must operate from the point of view that next time we may not be so lucky. The urgency with which we responded to the immediate water predicament must now be transferred into collecting the information we need to reach every pocket of our community. We have to establish deeper reach into our senior citizen population, which is not as wired as our younger citizens. We need to communicate more directly with families in need.

Similarly, we need to extend our crisis alert system to send out calls in foreign languages. We have the technical capabilities to do this. We have Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian-Creole speakers in our 311 city information department. We have just hired a statistics coordinator who can help us build the lists necessary to bring these constituents into the fold. Now we need to put all of that together and into action.

Yet, and I cannot stress this enough, City Hall cannot do this alone. The only way we can improve our reach into the community is if the entire community gets involved. This requires all hands on deck – civic organizations, churches, neighborhood associations, etc. You name it, we need it.

If we all rally together it will put this city in the best possible position should it be faced with an even greater crisis. The city government owes no less to the community and the community owes no less to itself.