Examining the relationship between weather-related power outages and disaster risk perception

Power outages are visible consequences of extreme weather, with effects on individual well-being. However, little is known about how uneven exposure to outages, especially those directly linked to extreme weather, shapes perceived risk of disasters. Disaster risk perception is defined as individuals' judgement of the likelihood and consequences of future disasters, including effects on health and economic well-being. It can influence protective action and support for adaptation. This study investigates the relationship between disaster risk perception and power outage duration. 478 residents of Nova Scotia, Canada, were surveyed and geocoded to 1 × 1 km grid cells. Weather-related outages were measured as hours overlapping hazardous weather alerts, and non-weather-related outages as residual outage hours. Two-level linear mixed-effects models estimated associations between standardized weather-related and non-weather-related outage hours and perceived disaster risk. Both outage types were positively associated with perceived disaster risk. The increase associated with a one-standard-deviation rise in weather-related outage exposure was close to the difference between individuals with and without recent disaster experience. It was more than three times larger than the non-weather-related outage increase. Quarterly model indicates that recent weather-related outages have stronger associations than earlier outages. Additional analyses show higher baseline perceived risk among older adults and respondents with prior disaster experience, but not stronger effects of outage. Alternative functional forms indicate modest non-linear variation, but evidence supports the linear model as a parsimonious estimate of the average outage-risk association. Overall, the findings highlight weather-related power outages as a consequential factor for energy and disaster research.