Spillover and Cascading Crises in Public Health and Water Systems: The Orlando Liquid Oxygen Shortage

In August 2021, COVID cases spiked in Florida with over 24,000 breakthrough cases per day making Florida the state with the highest increase at the time. Florida saw an increase in hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the last two weeks of August and became the 3rd state in the U.S. to exceed 3 million COVID cases. Not only did this impact public health, but it also created an unforeseen impact on the municipal water system. The surge in COVID cases created a surge in demand for treatment, one in which included liquid oxygen, used for respiratory therapy. Without liquid oxygen, ozone cannot be created and without ozone, the drinking water would be limited, leading to discoloration, a smell like rotten eggs, and questions about safety for consumption. Orlando officials issued an advisory requesting that residents reduced their frivolous water usage for at least two weeks. We use the Orlando case to explore the convergence, cascading and overlapping conditions of crises events. We argue that multiple events, interacting and overlapping will become increasingly common.