Presentation
“When Should I Leave?”: The Effect of Impact Based Hurricane Wind and Storm Surge Warnings on Evacuation Intentions
DescriptionImpact-based warnings (IBWS) are warnings that are designed to communicate potential consequences and impacts of severe weather events to motivate protective action. The current study investigated whether designing storm surge specific impact-based warnings may motivate people to take protective action during a hurricane. 2,000 residents from Florida and Louisiana were randomized into a 2 (phenomenon or impact-based wind warning) x 3 (no warning, phenomenon or impact-based storm surge warning) between subjects design. The phenomenon warnings issued were a replication of current emergency wind/storm surge alerts provided by the NWS. The impact-based warnings followed the same template but included additional consequences and impact to life and property. Analyses revealed that there was a significant main effect of the storm surge condition on evacuation intention, such that participants who received the impact-based storm surge warning reported that they would be more likely to evacuate earlier, compared to participants who received no warning at all. Additionally, prior experience with storm surge and evacuation significantly moderated the relationship between storm surge warnings and evacuation intentions. Specifically, participants with no prior storm surge or evacuation experience reported that they would be more likely to evacuate when they received an impact-based storm surge warning.
Contributor
Alternate Presenter
Event Type
Lecture
TimeFriday, October 17th8am - 8:20am CDT
LocationGrand Hall M/N
Communications
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