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Complex industrial disasters illustrate the challenges of underdeveloped public warning systems. Unlike most natural disasters, quickly identifying hazardous materials and assessing their threats is crucial for developing protective action recommendations (PARs) that guide household response in industrial crises. The 2023 East Palestine, Ohio (USA) train derailment, chemical spill, and fires revealed that gaps in rapidly identifying hazardous materials, and the threats they present, can severely impact the public warning system. As the crisis unfolded, responding agencies left crucial questions unanswered, leaving community members uncertain about their safety, the extent of environmental contamination, and what protective actions to take. It is imperative to study the drivers of household protective actions in the absence of a developed warning system and well-established PARS. To achieve this, we conducted a community survey in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (n = 259) in response to the East Palestine crisis. We used multivariate logistic regressions to identify statistically significant explanatory factors that predict protective action response. Our findings reveal gaps in response, where challenges identifying and communicating hazards created environmental justice concerns. We provide policy recommendations to strengthen hazard identification and outline further work to include equity as a pillar of environmental disaster response. 

The provision of water services is critical to ensure the vitality of Alaskan communities. Water systems in Alaska operate differently than those in the contiguous US given the Arctic climate, remote geography, and unique workforce limitations. For example, some communities rely on water delivered using trucks, and many households use traditional sources (e.g., rainwater, ice melt). This unique context reconfigures how water systems relate to other critical infrastructure services (CISs), such as transportation and electricity. For instance, the high energy costs needed to heat water systems in Alaska can exacerbate water insecurity. In another example, some communities with delivered water services can be limited by transportation challenges such as limited connectivity, roadway damage, and reduced visibility during winter weather. While we recognize that water-related challenges in Alaska are often linked to other CISs, it remains unclear how these interdependencies shape services—for instance, which connections are sources of vulnerability? Through a systematic literature review, we seek to understand the underlying network of interdependencies between water systems and other CISs in Alaska. We employ a qualitative content analysis of scholarly literature to identify relevant CISs and how they influence the provision of water services. By enhancing our knowledge about infrastructure interdependencies in Alaska, we can improve management by taking into account other relevant systems. Further, our work identifies key research gaps and opportunities, guiding future efforts to address the complex infrastructure challenges in Alaska. 

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. 

Anonymized interview data to understand US water utilities challenges and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2032434/2032429.