Toward a Multi-stage Model of Hurricane Evacuation Decision: An Empirical Study of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

This study extended previous research by testing the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) on hurricane evacuation decisions during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. An examination of this mediation model shows that a household’s evacuation decision, as predicted, is determined most directly by expected wind impacts and expected evacuation impediments. In turn, expected wind impacts and expected hydrological impacts are primarily determined by expected storm threat and expected rapid onset. Finally, expected storm threat, expected rapid onset, and expected evacuation impediments are determined by households’ personal characteristics, their reception of hurricane information, and their observations of social and environmental cues. These results are generally consistent with the PADM and reinforce the importance of testing multi-stage multi-equation models of hurricane evacuation

Predicting Residents’ Responses to the May 1-4, 2010, Boston Water Contamination Incident

This study examined 110 local residents’ warning sources, warning channels, warning receipt times, message content, risk perception, and behavioral responses (warning confirmation, and consumption of untreated tap water, boiled water, bottled water, and personally chlorinated water) during the May 1-4 2010 Boston water contamination incident. Most residents received warnings from peers and news media and these warnings mentioned 2.35 of five recommended elements of a warning message—most commonly the threat and the recommended protective action. TV was the most frequent channel for additional information, partly because it was the most frequent channel of routine information, but the Internet was also a common channel for additional information. Consumption of untreated tap water declined, consumption of personally chlorinated water remained negligible, and consumption of boiled water and bottled water increased during the incident. Warning receipt from an authority increased consumption of boiled water, whereas receipt of a less specific warning tended to increase consumption of bottled water. The distribution of warning times followed a logistic (S-shaped) distribution, with the largest increase taking place during prime TV news time (4-6pm). These results call attention to the need to increase the number of comprehensive warning response studies on rapid onset disasters to provide the basis for developing a comprehensive theory that can explain similarities and differences in responses to the full range of environmental hazards

How Do Perceptions of Risk Communicator Attributes Affect Emergency Response? An Examination of a Water Contamination Emergency in Boston, USA

A water main break that contaminated the Boston area\u27s water distribution system prompted a four-day “boil water” order. To understand risk communication during this incident, 600 randomly sampled residents were mailed questionnaires, yielding 110 valid responses. This article describes how perceptions of different social stakeholders influenced whether respondents complied with the Protective Action Recommendation—PAR (i.e., drank boiled water), took alternative protective actions (i.e., drank bottled water or/and self-chlorinated water), or ignored the threat (i.e., continued to drink untreated tap water). Respondents perceived technical authorities (i.e., water utility, public health, and emergency management) to be higher on three social influence attributes (hazard expertize, trustworthiness, and protection responsibility) than public (i.e., news media, elected officials) and private (i.e., self/family, peers, and personal physicians) intermediate sources. Furthermore, respondents were most likely to comply with the PAR if they perceived authorities and public intermediates to be high on all three attributes and if they had larger households and lower income. Contrarily, they were more likely to take alternative actions if they were younger and had higher levels of income, risk perception, and emergency preparedness. These results underscore the need for technical authorities to develop credibility with their potential audiences before a crisis occurs

Vulnerability of Community Businesses to Environmental Disasters

Business plays important roles in community functioning. However, disaster research has been disproportionately focusing on units of analysis such as families, households, and government agencies. This paper synthesizes the major findings within the business development research field and those within the disaster research field. It constructs a research framework for evaluating business vulnerability to natural disasters. Our theoretical integration of the research conducted to date addresses five major issues. First, it defines the ways in which businesses are subject to the impacts of natural disasters. Second, it identifies the factors that determine the magnitude of business impacts after a disaster. Third, it identifies how and when businesses will return to their pre-disaster level in the disaster stricken community. Fourth, it outlines how business impacts interact with other aspects of community impacts (i.e. socio-demographic impacts) of natural disasters? Fifth, it discusses which business sectors are winners and which are losers in response to a natural disaster in terms of how to measure business losses or gains.National Science Foundation EEC-9701785National Science Foundation CMS 0219155published or submitted for publicatio

Cascadia Subduction Zone Residents’ Tsunami Evacuation Expectations

The U.S. Pacific Northwest coast must be prepared to evacuate immediately after a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. This requires coastal residents to understand the tsunami threat, have accurate expectations about warning sources, engage in preimpact evacuation preparedness actions, and plan (and practice) their evacuation logistics, including an appropriate transportation mode, evacuation route, and destination. A survey of 221 residents in three communities identified areas in which many coastal residents have reached adequate levels of preparedness. Moreover, residents who are not adequately prepared are willing to improve their performance in most of the areas in which they fall short. However, many respondents expect to engage in time-consuming evacuation preparations before evacuating. Additionally, their estimates of evacuation travel time might be inaccurate because only 28–52% had practiced their evacuation routes. These results indicate that more coastal residents should prepare grab-and-go kits to speed their departure, as well as practice evacuation preparation and evacuation travel to test the accuracy of these evacuation time estimates. Overall, these results, together with recommendations for overcoming them, can guide CSZ emergency managers in methods of improving hazard awareness and education programs. In addition, these data can guide transportation engineers’ evacuation analyses and evacuation plans

Perceived Stakeholder Role Relationships and Adoption of Seismic Hazard Adjustments

This article examines the relationships among perceived stakeholder characteristics, risk perceptions, respondent characteristics, and self-reported adoption of 16 seismic hazard adjustments by residents in areas of high and medium seismic risk

Households\u27 immediate Responses to the 2009 American Samoa Earthquake and Tsunami

This study used variables from the Protective Action Decision Model to guide data collection about 262 residents\u27 responses to the 2009 Samoa M8.1 earthquake and tsunami. The results show that earthquake shaking, combined with knowledge that this can cause a tsunami, was the most common source of first awareness about a possible tsunami and that broadcast media were the most common first social sources of warnings. Radio was an important source of additional information, as were face-to-face contacts and phone calls. Contrary to previous research, few of the recommended elements of a warning message were communicated to those at risk and none of these message elements was significantly correlated with evacuation. Nonetheless, two thirds of coastal residents and half of inland residents began evacuations within 15. min after the earthquake. Those who had participated in earthquake hazard awareness meetings had higher risk perceptions but were no more likely to evacuate to higher ground or evacuate promptly. This study\u27s results are broadly consistent with previous findings on disaster response but raise a number of unresolved questions about behavioral response to rapid onset disasters