Hurricane Hazards, Evacuations, and Sheltering: Evacuation Decision-Making in the Prevaccine Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the PRVI Region

Details

• Journal Title:
  Weather, Climate, and Society
• Personal Author:
  Collins, Jennifer ; Polen, Amy ; Dunn, Elizabeth ; Maas, Leslie ; Ackerson, Erik ; Valmond, Janis ; Morales, Ernesto ; Colón-Burgos, Delián
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NWS (National Weather Service)
• Description:
  Although research relating to hurricane evacuation behavior and perceptions of risk has grown throughout the years, there is very little understanding of how these risks compound during a pandemic. Utilizing the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (PRVI) as a study region, this work examines risk perceptions and evacuation planning during the first hurricane season following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic before vaccines were widely available. Analyses of how people view public shelters and whether evacuation choices will change in light of COVID-19 concerns were conducted, and results reflect major changes in anticipated evacuation behavior during the 2020 hurricane season. Key findings include that over one-half of the sample considered themselves vulnerable to COVID-19. When asked about their intended actions for the 2020 hurricane season, a significant number of individuals who would have previously evacuated to a shelter said that they would choose not to during the pandemic, reflecting that public shelter usage has the potential to decrease when the decision is coupled with COVID-19 threats. In addition, individuals were shown to have a negative perception of public shelter options. Approximately one-half of the respondents had little faith in shelters’ ability to protect them, and three-quarters of respondents found the risks of enduring a hurricane to be less than those posed by public shelters. These results will inform future hazard mitigation planning during a disease outbreak or pandemic.
• Keywords:
  Atmospheric Science Global And Planetary Change Social Sciences (miscellaneous) Global And Planetary Change Global And Planetary Change
• Source:
  Weather, Climate, and Society, 14(2), 451-466
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-21-0134.1
• ISSN:
  1948-8327 ; 1948-8335
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  American Meteorological Society
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:87b176a4279a31f6aadf296761ad0fef9e246db91f82efc7631a9da874d0caf8e1ad75d7b45c988a5acfdf62eb004365ad45119b2a032f743e69febe28070f99
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/63672/noaa_63672_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.24 MB ]