NSF Award
2503593
The objective of this Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) research project is to collect perishable data on organizational adaptation, multi-agency alignment, and team flow in restoration of electric power supply following Hurricane Helene in the upstate South Carolina region. Additionally, this project gathers evidence to assess the benefits of burying electric power lines. Restoring critical infrastructure services is essential to community recovery from a disaster. While multiple factors influence restoration timelines, there is a notable lack of empirical data on the challenges of multi-organizational collaboration and their effects. This gap is particularly significant for rural communities where resources are limited. Hurricane Helene, the fastest moving and most costly hurricane recorded in upstate South Carolina, offers a unique opportunity to examine key hurdles in communication and coordination for power restoration in the aftermath of extreme events.<br/><br/>Using a mixed-methods approach, the project recruits participants of crews and managers from multiple agencies involved in power restoration efforts. Through active engagement and collection of: ephemeral data on restoration obstacles; organizational structures; ad-hoc multi-agency communication protocols; and team flow prerequisites are collected. Qualitative analysis, combined with inductive coding, will be used to identify key themes and patterns to categorize and document findings. This project critically examines the impacts of communication, skills, and alignment challenges on the efficiency of post-hurricane power restoration. As the result, it generates important insights to inter-organizational coordination in the context of extreme events.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
