2023
Author(s): Spurlock T, Sewell K, Sugg MM, Runkle JD, Mercado R, Tyson JS, Russell J
Extreme weather events endanger critical health infrastructure, and many individuals rely on in-frastructure to meet their basic needs, such as in-home heating, water, and electric-powered med-ical devices. The purpose of this study is to identify spatially explicit at-risk populations for power outages due to these extreme weather events. To accomplish this, we used the HHS emPOWER Emergency Planning Dataset, which was created to help public health authorities plan for and ad-dress the needs of communities. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we overlay em-POWER data with the frequency of disaster declarations for extreme weather events, including wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and ice storms. Through our analysis, we identified vulnerable areas for high rates of disasters and electricity-dependent durable medical equipment (DME) to be located in communities along the coast. We also found a higher concentration of DME in rural areas compared to urban areas. In addition, we found least privileged economic locations are dis-proportionately vulnerable to power outages in the southeastern United States due to their high concentration of DME individuals. Results will inform public health officials where to target in-terventions to ensure continuity of care for vulnerable populations during power outages at the community level.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103844