Effects of Infrastructure Service Disruptions Following Hurricane Irma: Multilevel Analysis of Postdisaster Recovery Outcomes

Abstract

Widespread power outages and related critical infrastructure disruptions after major storms can thwart household and community recovery by limiting access to critical facilities and services. In this analysis, we examine the impact of infrastructure disruptions on the individual, household, and community recovery using logistic regressions and multilevel mixed-effects models with a four-level hierarchical structure: household, urban/rural, county, and region. Household-level recovery is assessed using responses from a cross sectional survey (n=988) collected through telephone landlines and an online platform in 29 Florida counties eight months after Hurricane Irma. We find that the severity of the damage, number of days without electricity, insurance, and access to health services are significant predictors of household recovery. At the county level, the percent of accounts served by rural and municipal cooperatives, as well as the percent of individuals with disabilities, are statistically significant. The random intercepts for the region and the urban/rural divide are also statistically significant, suggesting that the regional effects of disruptions play an important role in household recovery. The findings from this study provide insights on the impact of infrastructure disruptions on household recovery and the importance of multilevel modeling, supporting the case for further, more comprehensive interdisciplinary studies to reduce the power outage-related exposure of vulnerable populations.