In the News: Tackling Utility Emergency Preparedness with Whole-Community Resilience

Senior Project Analyst Ashley Harrigan is a co-author of “Critical Infrastructure and the New Standard for Utility Emergency Preparedness,” published in Homeland Security Today. The article examines how escalating threats, including extreme weather, cyber incidents, physical attacks, and cascading infrastructure failures, are testing the limits of utility planning and response frameworks across electricity, gas, water, telecommunications, transportation, and public safety systems.

Grid resilience depends on shared responsibility among utilities, government agencies, public safety organizations, and the communities they serve. The article calls for validated, exercised emergency response plans that account for physical and cyber threats, as well as the workforce realities utility personnel face as both first responders and disaster survivors.