1. Power Disruptions and Cascading Impacts: Issues for Consideration
Kathleen Tierney
Natural Hazards Center
University of Colorado Boulder
Workshop on Preparing for High Consequence
Low Probability Events, University of Arizona
September 28, 2015

2. Electric Power
Most critical infrastructure system Infrastructure resource on which other critical systems depend Importance stressed in U. S. business and household surveys
Water &
Waste Water
Banking
Power
Transportation
Management
Telecom
Internet,
Cyber Infrastr.
Health Care

3. Electric Power Failures and Cascading Effects: The Northeastern U. S
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

4. 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.”

5. Effects on Transportation: New York City
City lost all of 11,000
traffic signals
No mass transit
functioning except
buses, water ferries
400,000 people
trapped on
subways
Massive congestion
on streets, sidewalks
bridges, etc.
Area around 59th Street Bridge
August 14, 2003

6. 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

7. Selected Health Impacts: New York City
Food spoilage, water loss, water contamination, increases in diarrheal illness
Increased calls to 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

8. 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

9. Hurricane Katrina 2005 Electric power, other
infrastructure failures and
losses due to hurricane
winds, but especially levee
failures

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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.”

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Outage Outrage: Examples
“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
Connecticut Light and Power: Extensive outages in Hurricane Irene and Halloween nor ‘easter storm, 2011
BG&E and Pepco: Direcho storm of 2012: