Collaboratory communications intern Sascha Medina spoke with Dr. Jordan Kern about his research study on the vulnerability of North Carolina’s electric power grid to flooding. He found that large portions of the North Carolina power grid are in the path of flooding when weather events such as hurricanes and extreme precipitation occur. This increases the potential for certain communities in North Carolina to experience power losses for days and/or weeks when flooding of electric substations does occur. In this podcast, Dr. Kern spoke about this study’s purpose and findings, implications and his next research steps.
This study was part of the Collaboratory’s 2021 Flood Resilience Study, which comprehensively studied different areas of flood resiliency for the state of North Carolina.