Spatiotemporal Distribution of Power Outages with Climate Events and Social Vulnerability in the USA

The authors reviewed power outages from 2018–2020, and found "an average of 520 million customer-hours total without power annually across 2447 US counties (73.7% of the US population)." Longer outages were more likely to occur in northeastern, southern, and Appalachian counties, while counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Michigan experienced both frequent 8+ hour outages and higher social vulnerability and prevalence of electricity-dependent durable medical equipment use. Considerations for disaster preparedness and response are included.