Residents of more rural and lower-income areas may be receiving disproportionately slow power restorations following hurricanes, a new study has found.
Electricity inequities: The research, published in Remote Sensing, showed stark differences in repair times when comparing communities in the aftermath of Florida’s 2018 Hurricane Michael.
The authors found that block groups with higher proportions of minorities, multi-family housing units, rural areas and households receiving assistance were the most affected.
All lit up: To draw their conclusions, the authors combined remote sensing data, official outage records and census figures.
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They then overlayed information from NASA’s nighttime light database with emergency response imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- The researchers found significant fluctuations in power restoration, which tended to be much faster in urban areas surrounding Tallahassee than in the more rural Mexico Beach.
No time to wait: “Delayed recovery in key infrastructure, such as the power grid, will further devastate these communities,” senior author Diana Mitsova, chair of Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, said in a statement.
“Operation of air conditioning units, food storage, entertainment, working, schooling and even drinking water for households with wells, all rely on electricity,” Mitsova added.
Disaster in delay: The authors emphasized the importance of both reexamining building codes and creating new mutual aid agreements among rural electricity cooperatives.
They also stressed a need for more focused research on the disparate effects of disaster — with a particular look at the impacts on smaller, rural regions.
“These communities tend to be vulnerable to natural disasters and often suffer more severe damage compared to other areas,” Mitsova said.
