Cascading Disasters and Patterns of Mental Health: The February 2021 Winter Storm and Power Crisis in Texas, USA

Keywords: Mental Health, Disasters, Climate-Health, Suicidal Ideation, Depression, Causal Analysis
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

In February 2021, the state of Texas and large parts of the US were affected by a severe cold air outbreak and winter weather event. This event resulted in large-scale power outages and cascading impacts, including limited access to potable water, multiple days without electricity, and large-scale infrastructure damage. This study aimed to analyze the crisis responses from the 2021 winter weather event in Texas using Crisis Text Line, a text-based messaging service that provides confidential crisis counseling nationwide. To date, Crisis Text Line is the largest national crisis text service, with nearly 8 million crisis conversations since its inception in 2013. We employ multiple analytic techniques, including segmented regression, interrupted time series, ARIMA, and difference-in-difference (DID), to investigate numerous time periods of exposure for all crisis conversations. Results found increases in crisis conversations; however, significance was different across crisis outcomes at varying time periods. Our work highlights that cascading winter weather events, like the Texas 2021 Winter storm, negatively impact mental health. Future research is needed across different disaster types (e.g., cascading, concurrent) and for specific crisis outcomes (e.g., depression, suicidal ideation) to understand the optimal timing of crisis intervention post-disaster.