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During historic cold weather events, massive infrastructure failures can leave people without water for days. Government agencies, such as city utilities, distribute disaster-preparedness information to help the public understand and mitigate potential risks. Individuals must take a proactive approach to better prepare for extreme cold weather events, and limited research exists on the specific factors that motivate people to prepare for extreme cold weather. This study investigated ways to improve individual disaster preparedness by focusing on message effectiveness, risk perception, and trust in different sources. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze survey data from 405 residents in two Texas cities. The SEM employed combined and comparative approaches to identify general patterns and context-specific water infrastructure preparedness strategies. Results indicated that effective messaging, heightened risk perception, and trust in informants are crucial to enhancing disaster preparedness, and they operate differently depending on whether people are preparing their homes before or during an extreme cold event. Differences between the models for each city suggest that tailored strategies are necessary for different communities. The findings in this study can provide valuable insights for local government, utilities, and individuals to improve risk communication and disaster preparedness. 

Energy equity and justice have become priority considerations for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars alike. To ensure that energy equity is incorporated into actual decisions and analysis, it is necessary to design, use, and continually improve energy equity metrics. In this article, we review the literature and practices surrounding such metrics. We present a working definition for energy justice and equity, and connect them to both criteria for and frameworks of metrics. We then present a large sampling of energy equity metrics, including those focused on vulnerability, wealth creation, energy poverty, life cycle, and comparative country-level dynamics.We conclude with a discussion of the limitations, gaps, and trade-offs associated with these various metrics and their interactions thereof. 

In February 2021, severe winter weather in Texas caused widespread electrical blackouts, water outages, and boil water notices. Water systems faced extensive challenges due to cascading failures across multiple interde- pendent infrastructure systems. Water utilities have since made considerable progress in improving resilience to extreme events, but ongoing challenges remain. Through a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 20 large water utilities in Texas, this study tracks the evolution of water infrastructure resilience across three phases: the storm and immediate aftermath, the subsequent one-year period, and the “new normal” in the post-disaster environment. We consider five dimensions of resilience—economic, environmental, governance, infrastructure, and social—to identify where solutions have been implemented and where barriers remain. This study contributes to efforts throughout the United States to build more robust water systems by capturing lessons learned from Winter Storm Uri and providing recommendations to improve hazard preparedness, resilience, and public health. 

A severe winter storm in February 2021 impacted multiple infrastructure systems in Texas, leaving over 13 million people without electricity and/or water, potentially $100 billion in economic damages, and almost 250 lives lost. While the entire state was impacted by temperatures up to 10 °C colder than expected for this time of year, as well as levels of snow and ice accumulation not observed in decades, the responses and outcomes from communities were inconsistent and exacerbated prevailing social and infrastructure inequities that are still impacting those communities. In this contribution, we synthesize a subset of multiple documented inequities stemming from the interdependence of the water, housing, transportation, and communication sectors with the energy sector, and present a summary of actions to address the interdependency of infrastructure system inequities.