Extreme weather events and critical infrastructure resilience: Lessons from Hurricane Irma in Florida
Shahnawaz Rafi, Joost R. Santos, Sisi Meng, Pallab Mozumder
Abstract
Extreme weather events like hurricanes can severely impact the local economy. They disrupt vital services such as power, communication, and transportation. This study evaluates the economic impact of disruptions to seven critical infrastructure systems in Florida following Hurricane Irma's landfall in 2017. These sectors included disruptions in electricity, water, phone, internet, transportation, workplace, and grocery access. A household survey of Florida residents across 14 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) provided the extent of disruption in each infrastructure system. Then, the household survey responses (percentage of respondents who experienced the specific type of disruption and average days of that disruption) were incorporated into the Dynamic Inoperability Input-Output Model (DIIM) to assess the impact of these disruptions on Florida's 71 interconnected sectors. The total projected economic loss from the DIIM ranges from $3.66 to $5.30 billion, depending on the recovery period assumptions based on the number of working days. This study highlights the economic sector recovery and resilience due to critical infrastructure system failure and provides insights regarding the resilience of each sector and their inherent interdependencies. The findings can be valuable to policymakers for disaster preparedness and recovery planning for future extreme weather events.