RAPID: Texas Winter Storm

作为自COVID-19爆发以来袭击美国大陆的首批自然灾害之一，2021年冬季风暴在德克萨斯州造成严重的经济和健康损失，数百万居民在创纪录的寒冷爆发和持续的大流行中失去电力和供水。为了应对这些挑战，本快速反应研究（RAPID）项目评估了极端天气，停电，COVID-19大流行和在线社交网络使用对德克萨斯州居民访问嵌入其社交网络中的资源和信息的影响（即，社会资本）和从冬季风暴中恢复（即，灾害复原力）。此外，该研究旨在确定是否使用公共（例如，Twitter）与仅邀请的社交网络（例如，隔壁）加剧或加剧了社会资本和弹性的差距。该项目的研究结果一方面帮助我们了解COVID-19疫情对我们社会的长期影响，另一方面有助于设计和实施未来针对美国贫困社区的救灾计划。首先，它确定了社会经济地位、极端天气、停电和COVID-19大流行对德克萨斯州居民在2021年冬季风暴期间获得社会资本的影响。其次，拟议的项目精确地指出了使用不同的在线社交网络（即，公共与仅限邀请的在线社交网络）在冬季风暴期间促进了德克萨斯州居民获得联系、桥接和连接社会资本。第三，它旨在确定在线社交网络的使用和社会资本的获取在多大程度上减轻了冬季风暴和停电造成的心理，身体和经济影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As one of the first natural disasters striking the continental United States since the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2021 Winter Storm has caused severe economic and health damage in Texas as millions of residents lost electricity and water supply amid the record-breaking cold outbreak and an ongoing pandemic. In response to these challenges, this Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project assesses the influence of extreme weather, power outages, the COVID-19 pandemic, and online social network use on Texas residents’ access to resources and information embedded in their social network (i.e., social capital) and recovery from the winter storm (i.e., disaster resilience). Additionally, the research seeks to identify if the use of public (e.g., Twitter) vs. invitation-only social networks (e.g., Nextdoor) alleviates or exacerbates the disparity in social capital and resilience. Findings from this project on the one hand help us understand the long-term influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on our society, while on the other contribute to the design and implementation of future disaster relief programs targeting underprivileged communities in the U.S.Utilizing a longitudinal survey targeting residents of 108 counties in Texas with major disaster declaration, this project seeks to achieve three objectives. First, it identifies the influence of socioeconomic status, extreme weather, power outages, and the COVID-19 pandemic on Texas residents’ access to social capital during the 2021 winter storm. Second, the proposed project pinpoints the extent to which the use of different online social networks (i.e., public vs. invitation-only online social networks) facilitated Texas residents’ access to bonding, bridging, and linking social capital during the winter storm. Third, it seeks to identify the extent to which online social network use and social capital acquisition mitigated the psychological, physical, and financial impacts inflicted by the winter storm and power outages.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.