Factors Affecting Hurricane Evacuation Intentions

Abstract

Protective actions for hurricane threats are a function of the environmental and information context; individual and household characteristics, including cultural worldviews, past hurricane experiences, and risk perceptions; and motivations and barriers to actions. Using survey data from the Miami-Dade and Houston-Galveston areas, we regress individuals' stated evacuation intentions on these factors in two information conditions: (1) seeing a forecast that a hurricane will hit one's area, and (2) receiving an evacuation order. In both information conditions having an evacuation plan, wanting to keep one's family safe, and viewing one's home as vulnerable to wind damage predict increased evacuation intentions. Some predictors of evacuation intentions differ between locations; for example, Florida respondents with more egalitarian worldviews are more likely to evacuate under both information conditions, and Florida respondents with more individualist worldviews are less likely to evacuate under an evacuation order, but worldview was not significantly associated with evacuation intention for Texas respondents. Differences by information condition also emerge, including: (1) evacuation intentions decrease with age in the evacuation order condition but increase with age in the saw forecast condition, and (2) evacuation intention in the evacuation order condition increases among those who rely on public sources of information on hurricane threats, whereas in the saw forecast condition evacuation intention increases among those who rely on personal sources. Results reinforce the value of focusing hurricane information efforts on evacuation plans and residential vulnerability and suggest avenues for future research on how hurricane contexts shape decision making.

Influences of Sense of Place on Farming Households’ Relocation Willingness in Areas Threatened by Geological Disasters: Evidence from China

“…Some studies have shown that females are significantly more likely than males to reloacte/evacuate (Whitehead et al 2000;Bateman and Edwards 2002;Lazo et al 2015;Lim et al 2016), although Stein et al's (2013) study showed that gender had no significant impact on household evacuation willingness. Some studies have shown that older residents are more likely to relocate/evacuate than other age groups (Lazo et al 2015), but others have found the opposite effect (Kaniasty and Norris 1995;Trumbo et al 2014;Lazo et al 2015) or no effect (Huang et al 2012;Stein et al 2013).…”

“…Clarifying household evacuation and relocation behaviors and the reasons behind them can provide a reference for the formulation of disaster preparedness and mitigation policies, so as to reduce loss of life and property. Most previous studies, however, have centered on developed countries (such as the United States and Canada) (Tobin et al 2011;Durage et al 2014;Lazo et al 2015) and are primarily concerned with urban household response to hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters (Lim et al 2016), while few studies examine developing countries and the response of rural households in poor areas to geological disasters. Although compared to other natural disasters the impact of landslides does not appear to be particularly high, it is evident that the number of disasters associated with landslides is increasing worldwide (Alcántara-Ayala 2009; Hernández-Moreno and Alcántara-Ayala 2016).…”

“…Therefore, exploring the significant factors that affect the relocation behavior of households has become a key research focus in academic circles. However, the existing research focuses primarily on the influence of individual characteristics (gender, age, education, and so on) (Whitehead et al 2000;Tobin et al 2011;Huang et al 2012;Durage et al 2014;Lazo et al 2015;Lim et al 2016), household characteristics (household size, income, house ownership, and so on) (Baker 1991;Bateman and Edwards 2002;Dash and Gladwin 2007;Durage et al 2014;Wallace et al 2014), risk perception (Perry 1979;Houts et al 1984;Riad et al 1999;Stein et al 2010;Lazo et al 2015), source of warnings (Wilmot and Mei 2004;Widener et al 2013;Lazo et al 2015;Lim et al 2016), social support (Perry et al 1981;Riad et al 1999;Adeola 2008), previous experience of hazards (Lindell et al 2005;Burnside et al 2007;Adeola 2008;Lazo et al 2015), and access to resources (Riad et al 1999;Lim et al 2016) on the relocation/evacuation behavior. All of these factors can only partly explain residents' relocation behaviors, but do not explain well one factor that has played a role in recent extreme events in China: although knowing there is a continuing threat in residential areas after a disaster, some households still choose in situ reconstruction and are reluctant to relocate (Long and Zou 2010).…”

Factors Related to Evacuation Intentions of Power-Dependent Home Care Patients in Japan

“…Older adults who are unable to evacuate, whether or not they barricade themselves, do not evacuate in response to an evacuation directive (Dostal, 2015). Reporting of individuals suffering from hurricanes affects evacuation intention (Lazo, Bostrom, Morss, Demuth, & Lazrus, 2015). Municipal governments in Japan do not always possess up-to-date information on home-care patients.…”

When do people take action? The importance of people’s observation that nature is changing for pro-environmental behavior within the field of impersonal, environmental risk

“…Thus, risk perception has shown to affect active behavioral intention, such as in the context of sun blockers and self-examination for melanoma (Rimal & Real 2003) or air pollution and actions related to climate change (Whitmarsh 2008). Also in research on natural hazards, such as hurricanes, risk perception influences behavioral intentions, such as evacuation intentions (Lazo et al 2015). Besides the interest in these active behavioral intentions, communicative behavior is also of high interest.…”