On February 13, 2021, Winter Storm Uri hit the United States beginning in the Pacific Northwest, heading across the central US, and eventually exiting on the East coast. By February 16, roughly 73% of the continental United States had snow coverage leading to ten million households without power. To understand the disaster-related causes and circumstances of death for Winter Storm Uri, we activated media mortality surveillance to help inform preparedness and response efforts.

We searched the internet for key terms related to the winter storm, including storm name and type (e.g., winter storm), location-specific terms (e.g., state, county, city), mortality-related terms (e.g., death, mortality), cause of death (e.g., exposure, motor vehicle collision, carbon monoxide), along with other information learned from previous days (e.g., name of individual). We compiled and coded data into a standardized media mortality surveillance database and conducted descriptive statistics.

Between February 13 and March 2, 2021, the media reported 136 storm-related deaths from nine states. The winter storm had the largest impact in Texas (n=91). Of decedents with sex data available (n=91), the majority (58%) were male. For decedents with age data available (n=93), the majority (91%) were adults. Exposure to extreme temperatures (47%) was the most common cause of death, followed by blunt force trauma (15%), CO poisoning (7%), and fire (7%). Roughly one-third of deaths (34%) were indirectly related to the winter storm with motor vehicle collision (13%) representing the top indirect circumstance. Twenty-six deaths (19%) have an unknown circumstance and cause of death.

This was the first time we activated media mortality surveillance for a winter storm providing timely data for public health action. Media mortality surveillance continues to be a useful tool in assessing the impact of a disaster and guiding response efforts.