Overview of Disaster Preparedness in the United States

I talk a lot about utility emergency preparedness on this blog, but I thought it would be fun to put this in the context of overall disaster preparedness across the U.S.  Buckle up for some very interesting numbers!

The Numbers Behind Disaster Preparedness in the U.S.

First, let’s talk about the largest of numbers: according to FEMA, over the past 70 years, there have been nearly 4,000 natural disasters in the U.S. (3,977 to be exact).  By disaster, I mean natural, mainly weather-driven events.  Thanks to climate change, the frequency of these events is trending up.

Obviously, all U.S. states are impacted by disasters from time to time, but some states receive far more than their fair share of trauma.  The top-5 most impacted states are, in order, Texas, California, Oklahoma, Washington and Florida.  Texas and Florida in particular have been hard hit, experiencing 351 and 314 disasters since 1953, respectively.  Oklahoma, in the number-3 position, has experienced 194 disasters during this same period of time.

Aside from the raw numbers, the types of natural disasters experienced can also vary between the states.  For example, Texas experiences more forest fires and flood events than any other state, whereas California experiences the most earthquakes.  Florida sees the most hurricanes, New York sees the most snow and ice, and Arkansas sees the most tornadoes.

In fact, one of the biggest takeaways from the article linked-to above is that it implies that disaster preparedness in the utility industry cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach.  As an example, Florida utilities need to place extra emphasis on hurricane preparedness, whereas Arkansas utilities should be especially focused on tornado preparedness.

The bottom line is that the numbers are staggering.  Climate-driven increases in storm frequency and severity, coupled with greater expectations from utility regulators and customers, has made disaster preparedness in the utility industry more complex – and more important – than it ever has been before.