Kenneth Wilson, Catherine Smith, Donna Kain and Amanda Drozdowski

East Carolina University

The Coastal SocietyJune 2010

When hazardous storms threaten coastal communities, people need information to decide how to respond to this potential emergency.

NOAA and NC Sea Grant are funding a two-year project.

To learn how residents, government officials, businesses and other organizations

are informed and use information regarding hurricane and tropical storms.

to generate a model of risk and emergency communication that foregrounds the ways that different sectors of public seek and respond to information processes and products related to hurricanes and tropical storms.

Update a 1999 demographic survey of households and businesses in 8 North Carolina coastal counties that includes information about evacuation decision-making and behavior.

Extend current pilot study of risk and emergency communication in Dare County.

Conduct document evaluation study.

The effectiveness of storm emergency information is limited by public perception, awareness of risks and hazards, and characteristics of messages that can enhance or inhibit communication.

The primary claim driving our perspective is that these limitations can be mitigated in practice by applying a robust concept of communication that accounts not only for sending and receiving messages but also for sense-making by diverse publics as they are influenced by location, situation, knowledge, and social and cultural contexts.

The questions that inform our study frame the investigation of socio-cultural and cognitive influences on the ways in which various publics access, interpret, and use information about risk.

In this paper we will report our findings concerning how people access information about risk in emergency situations?

To gain deeper levels of information and to better frame the question in the survey instrument, we conducted more in-depth face to face interviews with a snowball sample of 120 residents (20 in each of 6 counties).

We also interviewed 24 local government officials (4 in each of 6 coastal and coastal-area counties, deliberate sample, face-to-face interview).

Initial contact was made with each respondent through a postcard mailed to their home address. This card informed them of the purpose of the survey and gave them the option to complete it as a web survey.

Most respondents did not opt for the web survey and interviewers began calling them a week after the postcard arrived.

After seven weeks of calling, a sample of 1079 randomly selected residents in 20 coastal and coastal-area counties had been completed.

While a third of the respondents knew that they would ride out a hurricane and other 7% knew that they would evacuate,

most respondents (59.8%) reported that their initial response to a threatening hurricane is to gather information to decide if they should evacuate or ride out the storm.

In order to explore the sources of information that respondents used, each respondent was asked about nine possible sources of information.

The nine information sources are TV, commercial or public radio, newspapers, NOAA Weather Radio, Internet website, social networks, alert services, local officials or state/national officials.

The nine information sources are TV, commercial or public radio, newspapers, NOAA Weather Radio, Internet website, social networks, alert services, local officials or state/national officials.

“When a hurricane is threatening this county, how often do you get information from ________?” The answer ranged from Never (1), Daily (2), Several times a day (3), Every hour (4) and More than once an hour (5).

  N MeanStd.

DeviationTelevision 1007 3.7 1.2

Social network 979 2.2 1.1

Commercial/public radio 960 2.2 1.4

Alert Service 937 2.1 1.4

Internet Websites 977 1.9 1.2

NOAA Weather Radio 1033 1.8 1.2

Local officials 943 1.4 0.9

Newspapers 979 1.3 0.5

State or national officials 943 1.2 0.6

Valid N (listwise) 778    

Respondents were also asked to rate the quality of the information they received from each source.

Ratings ranged from Excellent (5) to Poor (1). Notice that the number of people rating the

information varies substantially because only respondents who indicated that they used a source of information were asked to rate it.

The average respondent used 4 different sources of information.

  N Mean Std. DeviationTelevision 949 3.13 .865

Internet Websites 460 3.01 .964

NOAA Weather Radio 368 3.01 .910

Alert Service 475 2.94 .952

Commercial/public radio 532 2.75 .929

Local officials 276 2.65 1.096

Social network 667 2.61 1.037

State or national officials 168 2.28 1.110

Newspapers 356 2.08 1.166

Valid N (listwise) 6

Factor 1: AlertAlert ServiceTVRadio

Factor 2: Network Social NetworkLocal OfficialsState/National Officials.

The other 3 sources (NOAA, Internet Websites and Newspapers) are analyzed as individual items.

Correlations

Alert Network NOAA Internet NewspaperCoastal Correlation .018 -.023 -.016 .119** -.096**

Sig. .596 .495 .618 .000 .003N 887 887 1033 977 979

Married   -.024 -.044 .004 .098** -.041

Sig. (2-tailed) .481 .193 .904 .002 .206

N 856 863 992 944 944

Male Correlation -.018 -.077* .047 .061 -.064*

Sig. (2-tailed) .602 .022 .140 .061 .049N 867 872 1004 955 956

Education Correlation .017 -.027 .029 .184** -.009

Sig. (2-tailed) .626 .433 .357 .000 .795

N 845 852 979 931 932

White Correlation -.074* -.066 .014 .085** -.070*

Sig. (2-tailed) .031 .052 .669 .009 .032N 846 855 982 932 933

Over65 Correlation -.038 -.006 .056 -.219** .186**

Sig. (2-tailed) .273 .872 .078 .000 .000N 850 856 983 937 936

Income1 Correlation -.006 -.044 -.012 .229** -.045

Sig. (2-tailed) .871 .205 .716 .000 .168

N 844 851 977 929 929

Correlations

Alert Network NOAA Internet NewspaperEVACOrder Correlation .111** .059 .082** .067* -.029

Sig. (2-ailed) .001 .081 .009 .038 .362N 873 877 1007 961 961

neighbors Correlation .009 .054 -.011 -.027 -.010Sig. (2-ailed) .799 .148 .755 .449 .774N 728 732 815 790 789

island Correlation .002 .078* .000 .103** -.073*

Sig. (2-ailed) .957 .022 .990 .001 .024N 860 867 994 946 950

SurgeZone Correlation .019 .047 .060 .095** .028Sig. (2-ailed) .602 .189 .071 .005 .417N 786 795 897 862 864

floodrisk Correlation -.012 -.029 .038 .092** .008Sig. (2-ailed) .723 .396 .238 .005 .794N 860 870 991 950 949

windrisk Correlation .033 -.022 -.032 .057 .026Sig. (2-ailed) .349 .519 .329 .085 .440N 832 837 957 914 915

MobleHome Correlation .070* .005 -.010 -.087** -.071*

Sig. (2-ailed) .040 .892 .747 .008 .030N 863 868 999 950 951

Correlations

Alert NOAA Internet Network Newspaper

seekinfo Pearson Correlation

.170** .023 .110** .006 .023

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .460 .001 .861 .470

N 874 1010 964 882 965

Most people use multiple sources of information but few people use them all.

It should be somewhat reassuring to learn that the most frequently used source of information (television) is also the source with the highest quality rating.

It is also a source that is very available to local emergency managers who need to get important information to the residents of their communities.

Television is also used roughly equally by people in all our different social and demographic groups.

It is interesting that while alert systems are relatively new, they are relied on almost as much as radio or the Internet and more than NOAA Weather Radio.

Their use does not vary by education or income and minority respondents report more frequent use than white respondents.

They are used most often by residents of ocean front counties, those who know their homes are covered by evacuation orders and those people living in mobile homes.

The Internet is more likely to be used by people who are aware not only that the relevance of evacuation orders but also of specific risks.Living on an islandLiving in a storm surge zoneLiving in a flood zone

Alert Services and Internet Websites are also the information sources most like to be used by people seeking information to make an evacuation decision.

Kenneth Wilson, Catherine Smith, Donna Kain and Amanda Drozdowski

East Carolina University

The Coastal SocietyJune 2010