The Public Response to Hazardous Weather Events: 25 Years of Research

Abstract

Recent disasters with high numbers of fatalities such as Hurricane Katrina or the 2011 southeastern tornado outbreak demonstrate the need to understand the public's response in extreme weather events. Much of what we know about how an individual responds to a weather hazard comes from case study research on behaviors and perceptions following single events. Because many of the actions are context specific, it is important to periodically review these case studies as a group to identify any trends that cut across hazards or locations. This paper examines research on individual-level response to weather hazards from 1988 to 2012 and identifies similarities among the events. In conducting the review, the author also identified those areas in the response to hazardous weather events that are least frequently studied, including response to extreme heat and winter storms and to a lesser extent the response to flood events in the USA. Subjects covered in many of the papers included how one becomes aware of the hazard, how one responds, and what factors influence the response. Each of these subjects is discussed for each type of event, followed by a summary of the generalizations that may be made from these case studies.Recent events such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Southeastern tornado outbreak of 2011 show that mass casualties can still occur during extreme weather events. Despite decreasing trends in fatalities, the societal causes of economic losses (Kunkel et al. 1999) and the potential for catastrophic events reveal the importance of understanding the public's response to weather hazards. Many papers have described the response to specific hazardous weather events. Fewer papers address patterns across events within one type of hazard. A very limited number of authors have examined response to multiple hazards in a comprehensive way (e.g. ). Of these works, three were written over 20 years ago. The last two publications provide a good summary of the warning and response process, but neither attempts to comprehensively review literature from each type of atmospheric hazard. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of 25 years of research on the response to five hazardous weather events (floods, heat, hurricanes, tornadoes, and winter storms) from 1988 to 2012This review of the literature is important for several reasons. Most studies published on weather hazards focused on one hazard in particular, and many of these focus on the response to only one event. Trumbo et al. (2011) noted the lack of studies focusing on multiple natural hazards together. Single-event studies generate important knowledge; but, at some point, it is important analyze the body of knowledge as a whole to identify those areas in which our knowledge is strong and identify gaps that exist in the literature. For example, the discussion will show that hurricanes and tornadoes have received much more attention from scholars than winter weather or extreme heat and cold. The analysis will also identify similarities that e...

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