Kathleen TierneyNatural Hazards Center

University of Colorado Boulder

Workshop on Preparing for High ConsequenceLow Probability Events, University of ArizonaSeptember 28, 2015

Power Disruptions andCascading Impacts: Issues for Consideration

Electric Power

Most critical infrastructure system

Infrastructure resource on which other critical systems depend

Importance stressed in U. S. business and household surveys

Power

Water &Waste Water Banking

Telecom Transportation Management

Health Care Internet,Cyber Infrastr.

Electric Power Failures and Cascading Effects:The Northeastern U. S. Blackout of August 2003

• Series of small events led to progressive degrading and total failure of power systems in 8 eastern US states, Canadian province of Ontario

• Blackout affected a number of large cities: New York, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, cities in northern New Jersey, etc.

• Blackout began 2 pm August 14; entire system not operating reliably until the morning of August 17

• Fifty million people affected

• Estimated $7.8 billion US dollars (2015) in losses

Examples of Impacts: New York City

“Subways were stopped in their tunnels, airports halted operations, and elevators stalled mid-ride. Water systems shut down. The communications network was disrupted; cellular telephones ceased to work; emergency response networks were hampered; and automatic teller machines went dark. Many restaurants and shops shuttered their doors, and streets were rapidly overwhelmed by vehicles and pedestrians trying to find their way home. Without air conditioning, many buildings rapidly became stifling. Stranded commuters spent the night in train stations, hotel lobbies, and emergency shelters.”

Effects on Transportation: New York City

City lost all of 11,000traffic signals

No mass transit functioning exceptbuses, water ferries

400,000 peopletrapped on subways

Massive congestionon streets, sidewalksbridges, etc.

Area around 59th Street BridgeAugust 14, 2003

Other Impacts: Examples

• 800 elevator rescues

• High-rise buildings without water because of no pumping capacity

• Raw sewage released into lakes and rivers because of loss of power to wastewater treatment plants

Selected Health Impacts: New York City

• Food spoilage, water loss, water contamination, increases in diarrheal illness

• Increased calls to 9-1-1- emergency call centers, poison control centers

• Higher hospital emergency department utilization, but reduced capacity

• Increase in deaths on August 15

• Increase in hospital admissions for respiratory problems, due to heat, poor air quality, extra exertion provided to get around

Disaster-Induced Electric Power Failures:Impacts on Hospitals and Health Care Facilities

• Tropical Storm Allison (2001)

• Extensive damage to health care facilities due to flooding, loss of generators

• Loss of research, laboratory facilities, and animals

• Huge challenge evacuating hospital facilities Herman Medical Center, Houston

Hurricane Katrina 2005

Electric power, other infrastructure failures andlosses due to hurricanewinds, but especially leveefailures

Devastating Impacts on Health Care Facilities

• 80% of city of New Orleans flooded

• Hospitals lost power, communications, water, sewer, unable to re-supply drugs, blood, food, other supplies

• Temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit—no cooling capacity

• Nearly 2,000 patients and 8,000 staff, family members trapped in 11 most seriously affected hospitals

Memorial Hospital, New Orleans

Challenges and Tragic Impacts at Hospitals

• Evacuations had to take place under worst possible conditions, by air and water, including ICU and hospice patients

• Limited assistance available

• Loss of power for lab, x-ray equipment, dialysis machines, ventilators, surgeries

• Dozens of deaths in hospitals, including several patients euthanized at Memorial Hospital (see S. Fink, Five Days at Memorial)

Conditions at Charity Hospital, New Orleans

Hospital personnel improvising ventilators, “family members fanning patients for hours in sweltering rooms, workers using buckets or plastic bags for toilets, doctors making rounds by flashlight, personnel unable to check lab values or use electronic devices for IV medications, patients occupying stretchers in the halls, the emergency department moving from the first floor to the second floor to escape floodwaters, personnel brushing teeth and feeding each other with IV fluid after food ran out on Wednesday, people sleeping on the roof to avoid and heat and stench, bodies stacked in a stairwell because the basement morgue was full and inaccessible, and personnel feeling that the hospital had been forgotten after telephones and electronic power failed.”

Superstorm Sandy 2012: Electric Power and Impacts on Hospitals in New York City

• Five hospitals had to be evacuated in aftermath of Sandy

• NYU Langone Hospital evacuated 260 patients

• Patients included newborns in neonatal intensive care unit

New York University Langone Hospital

NYU Langone Hospital

• Prior to Sandy, NYU Langone Hospital had invested $3 billion in facility modernization—but didn’t upgrade generators, kept one generator in basement, fuel for the other in basement!

• After Sandy, Langone Hospital received $1.3 billion in recovery aid from FEMA—the second-largest grant for any individual facility project

Other Cascading Effects:The Growth of “Outage Outrage”

• The public has very high expectations regarding the electrical power supply

• These expectations center both on the need for continuous uninterrupted service and on the need for rapid restoration of services that are disrupted

• Utilities’ failure to perform adequately can have a range of negative political, economic, and reputational effects

Outage Outrage: Examples

• Connecticut Light and Power: Extensive outages in Hurricane Irene and Halloween nor ‘easter storm, 2011

• BG&E and Pepco: Direcho storm of 2012:

“As the good-government website OurDC notes, ‘From 2008 to 2010, Pepco CEO Joe Rigby earned $8.8 million and Pepco top officers earned more than $22 million. During that same period, Pepco reported $882 million in profits, paid no federal and state income taxes and received $817 million in tax refunds.’ Yet as the money rolled in, the Maryland Public Service Commission allowed Pepco to cut back on maintenance, in order to divert funds to dividends and management bonuses.”—The Atlantic, “Outage Outrage: The Politics of Electricity,” June 2, 2012