Where was Atlanta's mayor during the first 24 hours of water crisis?

ATLANTA - Atlanta residents have lingering questions about the City of Atlanta's handling of the water crisis. 

One of the biggest: where was the mayor during those critical first 24 hours? FOX 5 Atlanta has since learned Mayor Andre Dickens was in Memphis collecting cash for his campaign at a fundraiser hours after much of the city lost water on Friday.

David Johnson, the CEO of the Atlanta-based Strategic Vision PR Group, specializes in crisis communication.

"They looked like they were not prepared," Johnson said. "They looked like they had no idea what was going on, and also, they minimalized it."

He said typically, the first 24 hours define how people perceive a crisis. This first 24 was a total mess.

TIMELINE OF ATLANTA WATER MAIN BREAKS, REPAIRS

"We had the blurry maps, we had inaccuracies as far as where the water main was broke, who affected," said Johnson.

Dickens' first public statement didn't come until 24 hours after the first word of the water main break.

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"Had I been advising him, I would've done even a Zoom press conference, something even if it was from the airport showing that I care," Johnson said.

NotifyATL, the city's text message alert system, didn't send a boil water advisory out until 21 hours after it was issued.

The mayor did apologize for the initial handling of the crisis on Saturday.

"It was a challenge that we didn't meet head-on in terms of communicating directly," Dickens said.

Dickens' press secretary told FOX 5 that he was in constant communication with staff while he was gone, and when he realized how bad the situation was, he was back home within 24 hours.

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The mayor was not available for an interview Tuesday evening.