Texas and its recent cold weather problems are a long way from Bedford, but we’re not immune from the possibility-or even the probability-of similar outages here.
“The Texas blackouts showed how climate extremes threaten energy systems across the United States.”
This article from The Conversation shows how tightly our water, electricity, and power supplies are linked. The author, Roshanak (Roshi) Nateghi, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University, says “Water, electricity and natural gas are connected… and because of these tight connections, outages in one system are bound to ripple through the others and create a cascade of service disruptions.”
That’s why Texans not only experienced loss of heat in their homes but also were without drinking water. And were told to boil water at a time when there was no power!
Professor Nateghi offers suggestions for mitigating climate-induced hazards. You can find her paper here: https://tinyurl.com/mzwkeb5u
We also note that the Town of Bedford is working on hazard mitigation strategies and has a contract with a consultant to consider municipal “vulnerabilities” such as hit Texas recently. Watch for more information in The Citizen.
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