Hurricanes Laura and Sally: A Case Study of Evacuation Decision-Making in the Age of COVID-19

Abstract

This study examines risk perceptions and evacuation planning for those residents affected by Hurricane Laura–the first major hurricane evacuation during the COVID-19 pandemic–and Hurricane Sally, prior to the widespread availability of vaccines. Research on hurricane evacuation behavior and risk perceptions during a pandemic is critical for quantifying the intersect of these compounding threats. Analyses captured how people perceive public shelters and whether evacuation choices changed in light of the pandemic. Many study participants considered themselves vulnerable to COVID-19 (39.4%) and two-thirds believed it would be “very serious” if they or their loved ones contracted COVID-19, but this had no impact on their actual evacuation decision-making. Approximately 75% of the sample stayed at home during Hurricanes Laura or Sally, and of these, just over 80% indicated that COVID-19 was a somewhat important deciding factor. This reflects the partial role that COVID-19 played in balancing individual and household protective action decision-making during complex disasters. Whereas 15.5% wanted to evacuate but waited until it was too late. For those who evacuated to a hotel, many found that staff and guests wore masks and socially distanced in common spaces. Of particular interest is that individuals have a continued negative perception of public shelters’ ability to safeguard against COVID-19 which was coupled with a significant decrease in the number of respondents that would potentially use shelters in 2020 compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. These results have and will inform future hazard mitigation planning during the current or future pandemic, or infectious disease outbreaks.

Evacuation behavior of households facing compound hurricane‐pandemic threats

“…Other vulnerable populations across the Eastern seaboard, on the Gulf Coast, and in Puerto Rico have experienced hurricanes more frequently but were not included. However, there is recent research by Collins et al (2021);Collins, Polen, Dunn, Jernigan, et al (2022);Collins, Polen, Dunn, Maas, et al (2022) and others (Zhao et al, 2022) on evacuation behavior in several of these states and regions. The survey methodology and analysis used in this study of coastal Virginia could be applied to other regions and in the later stages of a pandemic (e.g., the post-vaccine period) to expand the body of knowledge about evacuation behavior in different places and times.…”

“…Research is emerging that looks at hurricane response during the COVID‐19 pandemic (Botzen et al, 2022; Collins et al, 2021; Collins, Polen, Dunn, Jernigan, et al, 2022; Collins, Polen, Dunn, Maas, et al, 2022; Hill et al, 2021), but more is needed to understand households' evacuation behavior to develop responsive and equitable policies, processes, and practices. This study focused on households' prospective evacuation behavior when facing threats of a hurricane during a pandemic and identified equity implications for disaster management.…”

Evacuate or social distance? Modeling the influence of threat perceptions on hurricane evacuation in a dual‐threat environment

“…Finally, a dual hazard event that has contradicting protective action suggestions (evacuation vs. social distancing) is fairly novel as of the time of this writing. When this study was conducted, there was not enough literature focusing on this issue (Clay et al., 2022; Collins et al., 2021; Collins, Polen, Dunn, Jernigan, et al., 2022; Collins, Polen, Dunn, Maas, et al., 2022). Therefore, this study solely focuses on the interrelationships among threat perception variables and how they affect hurricane evacuation decisions in this novel case.…”