Fleeing the storm(s): an examination of evacuation behavior during florida’s 2004 hurricane season

Abstract

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in Florida's history, with four hurricanes causing at least 47 deaths and some $45 billion in damages. To collect information on the demographic impact of those hurricanes, we surveyed households throughout the state and in the local areas that sustained the greatest damage. We estimate that one-quarter of Florida's population evacuated prior to at least one hurricane; in some areas, well over one-half of the residents evacuated at least once, and many evacuated several times. Most evacuees stayed with family or friends and were away from home for only a few days. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that the strength of the hurricane and the vulnerability of the housing unit had the greatest impact on evacuation behavior; additionally, several demographic variables had significant effects on the probability of evacuating and the choice of evacuation lodging (family/friends, public shelters, or hotels/motels). With continued population growth in coastal areas and the apparent increase in hurricane activity caused by global warming, threats posed by hurricanes are rising in the United States and throughout the world. We believe the present study will help government officials plan more effectively for future hurricane evacuations.

Environmental Influences on Human Migration in Rural Ecuador

“…Most of the latter have focused on fast forms of environmental change, such as hurricanes in the United States (e.g., Smith and McCarty 1996, 2009). In particular, the ramifications of Hurricane Katrina have been the focus of multiple studies, revealing that 1.5 million people were displaced, with the poor more vulnerable to long-term displacement (Fussell et al 2010; Groen and Polivka 2010).…”

“…Population-based household surveys can be used to collect representative data on migration, migrants can be linked to their environmental context using spatial methods and/or community-level survey data, and multivariate analyses can be used to account for other potential influences on migration. Previous studies have used these and other similar approaches to examine the effects on migration of climate variability (Dillon et al 2012; Gray and Mueller 2012a, b; Henry et al 2004); large-scale natural disasters (Groen and Polivka 2010; Halliday 2006; Smith and McCarty 1996, 2009); and local environmental conditions, such as soil quality and fuel-wood availability (Gray 2011; Leyk et al 2012; Massey et al 2010). These studies show that adverse environmental conditions tend to increase migration, but not always (Gray and Mueller 2012b).…”

Do Rainfall Deficits Predict U.S.-Bound Migration from Rural Mexico? Evidence from the Mexican Census

“…Environmental factors may influence household-level migration decisions through sudden-onset natural disasters (e.g., flooding, storms) (Smith and McCarty 2009), slow-onset incremental environmental changes (e.g., soil degradation, deforestation, sea-level rise) (Carr, Lopez and Bilsborrow 2009; Gutmann and Field 2010; Shen and Gemenne 2011), and static environmental conditions (e.g., elevation, topography) (Bates 2002; Gray 2009). In this study we focus on droughts, which arguably constitute a hybrid between sudden- and slow-onset drivers of migration.…”

Factors Contributing to Disaster Evacuation: The Case of South Korea

“…Gender [3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Cyclone, Hurricane, Natural disasters Age [9,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Hurricane, Nuclear power plant accident Ethnicity [3,9,11,18,25] Hurricane…”

“…Family composition [3,6,9,12,17,18,[26][27][28] Cyclone, Hurricane, Nuclear power plant accident, Natural disasters, Fire Pet [3,7,9] Hurricane, Natural disasters…”