Compounding disaster: Perceptions of coastal risk, extreme events, and oil and gas energy production in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

With more than five million people living in proximity to oil and gas (OGA) infrastructure, the state of Texas has the largest population at risk for developing health problems attributable to the industry in the U.S. The interaction between environmental and technological events, one kind of compound disaster events, has the potential to increase future health risks and aggravate existing social and environmental impacts. To identify current knowledge and awareness of the risks of compound disasters among residents, this article presents findings from interviews conducted in 2017 and 2019 with key stakeholders from Corpus Christi, Texas. The city is a hub of OGA production and transport and has recently suffered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey. The primary set of interviews (n: 23) is also complemented by the analysis of 2 other collections (n: 20) from residents who were affected by Hurricane Harvey and which are stored at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's library. Findings underscore the lack of awareness of OGA activities in general and of problems related to environmental racism. We also found a normalization of the impacts of small oil incidents among respondents and biased perceptions of development. Knowledge of the risk of compound events is rare, an issue that poses significant concerns for the future of these communities and their ability to prepare and mitigate.