When the Power Goes Out, Who Still Has Water?

Abstract

I n February 2021, Texas, otherwise known for its heat and arid climate, was blasted with snow, wind, and temperatures 40 °F below normal. As storms knocked out power across the Southeast, outages in Texas disrupted more than 800 public water systems serving 13 million people (Fausset et al. 2021, Healy et al. 2021. Without power to move or treat water, many treatment plants shut down, pumps stood idle, and pipes froze and cracked. When water did flow, residents were instructed to boil it because of possible contamination from low pressure and bypassed treatment. This is a case of cascading failures; like a run of dominos, a disruption in one system causes disruptions in others that depend on it. A power outage can quickly beget a water outage and then a public health and safety

Water Supply and Firefighting: Early Lessons from the 2023 Maui Fires

“…Water systems are known to be too dependent on the electric grid, particularly in disasters [31]. Whelton et al [32] summarized similar problems in their case study of the 2021 Marshall fire in Colorado, where water facilities' primary and backup power failed during the critical first 24 h of response.…”