Beyond broken infrastructure – the cascading effects of natural catastrophes
Floods, wildfires, severe convective storms and other natural peril events routinely inflict widespread property damage and what can be massive, headline-grabbing economic and insurance losses.¹ Less well publicised and understood are the cascading (negative) effects of such events on the systems that underpin society, including energy, water and transport infrastructure.
Article information and share options
Water: from contamination to crisis
Wildfires leave a toxic legacy, polluting water and cutting access to it. Ash and debris contaminate water sources, requiring costly treatment and, potentially, water shortages. The wildfires in California in 2018 caused tens of billions worth of damages for infrastructure repairs, including of water systems and treatment facilities. Millions of Californians were affected by water-quality concerns.2 Floods can compound negative outcomes, clogging rivers and basins with sediment from eroded hillsides,3 inundating treatment plants and leaving communities vulnerable to disease outbreak.4 In the wildfire in Maui in 2023, damage to power lines knocked out pumps, leaving nearly 40 000 residents without water for days.5
Wildfires and floods also threaten water quality by mobilising pollutants from hazardous waste sites.6 The potential for widespread contamination poses a serious risk to human health and the environment. Such concerns were prominent after the fire at the Iron Mountain Superfund site in northern California in 2018. The intense heat and altered water flows that followed exacerbated the threat of mobilising hazardous materials and disrupting waste water treatment, risking long-term contamination of water supplies and fisheries beyond the fire zone.7
Energy grid: from blackout to breakdown
Imagine a wildfire scorching transmission lines, plunging a city into darkness. Not just an inconvenience; a lifeline severed. Hospitals scramble for backup generators, water treatment plants sputter, and communication networks falter. Similarly, substations submerged by floods can cripple entire regions, impacting healthcare, essential services and communications.
The economic impact? In 2021, winter storms plunged Texas into frigid temperatures and widespread power outages. These crippled critical infrastructure and disrupted business operations across various sectors, resulting in economic losses estimated to be more than USD 200 billion.8 Impacts of disrupted generation and distribution include blackouts, damage to equipment and lost revenue. Production lines can be brought to a standstill due to lack of power, leading to lost production time, materials spoilage and delays to deliveries. Retail businesses may also close or operate at reduced capacity, leading to lost sales and revenue. Additionally, refrigerated goods can spoil without proper temperature control.
Transport: from road blocks to economic stagnation
Floods cripple the interconnectivity of transportation networks, causing local disruptions that ripple into regional travel issues and hinder emergency response systems. This can have significant economic consequences, as seen in the 2021 Germany floods, where road and railway infrastructure damage cost an estimated USD 2 billion, with long-term closures further impacting mobility and hindering economic recovery.9 Wildfires melt asphalt and damage bridges, severing vital economic arteries. The 2021 Dixie Fire in California impacted over 8 000 miles of roads, disrupting businesses and livelihoods. Hail can create hazardous driving conditions too, impacting millions of commuters and jeopardising essential deliveries.
References
References
1 D. Serre and C. Heinzlef, Assessing and mapping urban resilience to floods with respect to cascading effects through critical infrastructure networks, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Sept. 2018; A, Naqvi and I. Monasterolo, Assessing the cascading impacts of natural disasters in a multi-layer behavioral network framework, Nature Scientific Reports 11, 11 Oct. 2021.
2 D. Wand. et al., Economic footprint of California wildfires in 2018, Nature Sustainability 4, 7 Dec. 2020; The Costs of Wildfire in California, CCST, 29 October 2020.
3 Fires, Then Floods: Risk of Deadly Climate Combination Rises, The New York Times, 1 April 2022.
4 Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene-related Emergencies & Outbreaks, CDC, 9 May 2022.
5 As the Maui Fires Grew, Lahaina’s Water System Collapsed, The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2023.
6 K. Summers et al., National Hazards Vulnerability and the Remediation, Restoration and Revitalization of Contaminated Sites – 1. Superfund, Environmental Management, 25 March 2021.
7 Wildfires fueled by climate change threaten toxic Superfund sites, NBC News, 23 Dec. 2020.
8 Reliability and Resilience in the Balance – Winter Storms Report, Texas Section of the Am. Soc. of Civil Engineers, 16 Feb. 2022.
9 S. Mohr. et al., A multi-disciplinary analysis of the exceptional flood event of July 2021 in central Europe – Part 1: Event description and analysis, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 23, 6 Feb. 2023.
