The Brief 

In the early morning of February 17, 2025, the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) experienced a historic 54-inch water transmission main break in Southwest Detroit. The incident affected approximately 300 homes, forcing evacuations and triggering a coordinated emergency response from both GLWA and the City of Detroit. Frigid temperatures intensified the severity of the situation, complicating recovery efforts that included inspections, temporary housing support, infrastructure repairs and financial support for uninsured damage.

The crisis unfolded just as GLWA was preparing to announce a proposal for its largest water charge increase since the authority’s inception in 2016—heightening public scrutiny and the need for precise, empathetic and proactive communication.

VVK was engaged to manage the rapidly evolving media environment, protect GLWA’s credibility and support long-term narrative control around the need for increased infrastructure investment.

The Strategy 

VVK was engaged to manage the rapidly evolving media environment, protect GLWA’s credibility and support long-term narrative control around the need for increased infrastructure investment. To accomplish that, VVK designed a communications approach to address the immediate need to respond to the public and media, followed by a long-term plan the elevated the water main break as a proof point for infrastructure investment.

Key Elements

• Immediate crisis response to deliver timely, accurate and transparent updates to the public and media.
• Develop key messaging and maintain message consistency across outlets and spokespeople.
• Built an infrastructure-focused communications plan to shift the conversation from crisis to education.
• Utilize Editorial Briefings with key GLWA leadership to strengthen relationships with key media outlets to ensure balanced, sustained coverage.
• Developed a series of op-eds authored by GLWA leadership to raise awareness of the issues and advocating for a new model of water infrastructure funding.

The Work

VVK managed intensive media operations both during the crisis and through the issuance of issuing a dedicated announcement on February 26 about the approved budget charge increase.

We fielded dozens of inquiries each day while coordinating unified messaging across GLWA leadership, Detroit officials, and emergency response teams.

Building on that foundation, we developed a long‑term, infrastructure‑focused communications plan to drive consistent positive messaging, address public concerns, engage regional stakeholders, and strengthen relationships with media at every level to support more balanced coverage moving forward.

The Impact

• Issued 10 official updates between February 17 and March 5 and facilitated more than a dozen interviews with GLWA leadership.
• Garnered 1,238 media mentions in February
• Achieved a 98% message pull-through rate, surpassing GLWA’s goal of 75%.
• Improve transparency and strengthened regional trust through consistent stakeholder engagement.