Kenneth Wilson, Catherine Smith, Donna Kain
and Amanda Drozdowski
East Carolina University
The Coastal Society
June 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 decisionmaking 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).
Television
Social network
Commercial/public radio
Alert Service
Internet Websites
NOAA Weather Radio
Local officials
Newspapers
State or national officials
Valid N (listwise)
N
Mean
1007 3.7
Std.
Deviation
1.2
979
2.2
1.1
960
2.2
1.4
937
2.1
1.4
977
1.9
1.2
1033
1.8
1.2
943
1.4
0.9
979
1.3
0.5
943
1.2
0.6
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.
Television
Internet Websites
NOAA Weather Radio
Alert Service
Commercial/public radio
Local officials
Social network
State or national officials
Newspapers
Valid N (listwise)
N
949
Mean
Std. Deviation
3.13
.865
460
3.01
.964
368
3.01
.910
475
2.94
.952
532
2.75
.929
276
2.65
1.096
667
2.61
1.037
168
2.28
1.110
356
2.08
1.166
6
 Factor 1: Alert
 Alert Service
 TV
 Radio
 Factor 2: Network
 Social Network
 Local Officials
 State/National Officials.
 The other 3 sources (NOAA, Internet Websites and
Newspapers) are analyzed as individual items.
Correlations
Coastal
Alert
Network
NOAA
Internet
Newspaper
Correlation
.018
-.023
-.016
Sig.
.596
.495
.618
N
887
887
1033
-.096
.003
979
-.024
-.044
.004
Sig. (2-tailed)
.481
.193
.904
N
856
863
.119
.000
977
**
.098
.002
944
.047
.061
.140
.061
1004
955
-.064
.049
956
.184
.000
931
**
.085
.009
932
**
-.219
.000
937
**
.229
.000
929
Married
Male
Education
White
-.018
Sig. (2-tailed)
.602
N
867
Correlation
.017
-.027
.029
Sig. (2-tailed)
.626
.433
.357
N
845
852
979
-.074
.031
846
-.066
.014
.052
.669
855
982
Correlation
-.038
-.006
.056
Sig. (2-tailed)
.273
.872
.078
N
850
856
983
Correlation
-.006
-.044
-.012
Sig. (2-tailed)
.871
.205
.716
N
844
851
977
Correlation
N
Income1
-.077
.022
872
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
Over65
992
*
*
**
**
**
-.041
.206
944
*
-.009
.795
932
*
-.070
.032
933
**
.186
.000
936
-.045
.168
929
Correlations
EVACOrder
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
neighbors
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
island
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
SurgeZone
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
floodrisk
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
windrisk
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
MobleHome
Correlation
Sig. (2-ailed)
N
Alert
**
.111
.001
873
.009
.799
728
.002
.957
860
.019
.602
786
-.012
.723
860
.033
.349
832
*
.070
.040
863
Network
.059
.081
877
.054
.148
732
*
.078
.022
867
.047
.189
795
-.029
.396
870
-.022
.519
837
.005
.892
868
NOAA
**
.082
.009
1007
-.011
.755
815
.000
.990
994
.060
.071
897
.038
.238
991
-.032
.329
957
-.010
.747
999
Internet
*
.067
.038
961
-.027
.449
790
Newspaper
-.029
.362
961
-.010
.774
789
.103
.001
946
**
.095
.005
862
**
.092
.005
950
.057
.085
914
**
-.073
.024
950
.028
.417
864
.008
.794
949
.026
.440
915
**
-.071
.030
951
-.087
.008
950
*
*
Correlations
seekinfo
Pearson
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Alert
**
.170
NOAA
.023
Internet
**
.110
Network
.006
Newspaper
.023
.000
.460
.001
.861
.470
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 island
 Living in a storm surge zone
 Living 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 Society
June 2010