Elsevier

Applied Geography

Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 46-52
Applied Geography

Household preparedness for the Aftermath of Hurricanes in Florida

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.05.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Hurricane Wilma in 2005 resulted in difficulties for Florida agencies in satisfying emergency relief demands by citizens. Because of this, a study was conducted to assess overall household preparedness for the aftermath of a disaster causing loss of electricity and other utilities for at least three days. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1200 Florida households to ask about current levels of preparedness in the spring of 2006 and about preparedness levels during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Preparedness scores were computed based on a list of eight items for current preparedness and a list of ten items for preparedness for recent hurricanes. Results indicated that most households reported being well prepared to subsist on their own for at least three days following a disaster. Preparedness was strongly related to income, home ownership, race, age, and type of housing. Difficulties in meeting demand for emergency relief following Wilma appear to have resulted from needs of a relatively small percentage of households in an area having a very large population and from a number of households consuming relief supplies even though they reported being prepared.

Introduction

Florida experienced four major hurricanes in 2004, Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne (Franklin et al., 2006), and early in the 2005 season was struck by Dennis, another major storm (Beven et al., 2008). However, the state’s ability to meet the demand for emergency relief supplies was tested most severely by hurricane Wilma in the latter part of October, 2005 (Cooper & Block, 2006).

Wilma had been a powerful storm with winds estimated at 175 miles per hour (mph) over the Caribbean Sea between Mexico and Cuba. Peak sustained winds decreased to 120–125 mph when the storm made landfall on the southwest coast of Florida south of Naples six days later, but it was the impact on the state’s east coast as an exiting storm that challenged Florida’s response capabilities most. Wilma accelerated while crossing the Florida peninsula and had winds of 105–110 mph when moving over the Atlantic Ocean just north of Palm Beach. More than 3 million customers were without electrical power on Tuesday, October 25 (Florida Division of Emergency Management, 2005).

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina earlier in 2005, a tension developed between Federal organizations (notably the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense) and state and local governments with respect to the appropriate role of each level of government in disaster response. Florida in particular was resisting the planned levels of proactive response by Federal agencies. Following Wilma, Florida Governor Jeb Bush initially stated that emergency relief supplies would be widely available within 24 h. The volume of demand and the area over which the demand existed kept the state from meeting that goal, and approximately 72 h passed before emergency relief supplies were adequate (Cooper & Block, 2006).

The Wilma experience led the Governor and state emergency management officials to ask questions about the level of household preparedness on the part of Floridians and how residents could be encouraged to better prepare themselves to subsist without emergency relief for at least 72 h. The Florida Association of Broadcasters was under contract with the State to prepare public service announcements promoting hurricane preparedness at the time and was asked to measure and evaluate household preparedness in the state. The author assisted the Florida Association of Broadcasters in that task, and the effort described below is the product of that work.

Section snippets

Method

Telephone interviews were conducted throughout the state, stratified on two dimensions: geographical region and evacuation zone. A total of 1200 interviews were completed during the spring of 2006.

Conceptual framework

The schematic diagram shown in Fig. 2 depicts the conceptual framework and underlying rationale for the variables measured and tested in the study. The elements in this framework work separately and in various combinations to affect levels of preparedness. First, individuals must be aware of preparedness options in order to put them in place. To this end, governments attempt to achieve this with public service announcements through radio and television and through public education materials

Current preparedness

The percentage of people indicating that their household met the preparedness criterion for each preparation is shown in Fig. 3. More than 80% of respondents said they had flashlights, valuable papers, prescription medicines, non-perishable food, and a radio. Seventy percent said they had a grill for cooking, and 56% said they had sufficient water. It is likely that a larger percentage had water, but not the one-gallon-per-person-per-day quantity specified in the question. Slightly more than

Discussion

There is relatively little published literature dealing specifically with the sorts of hurricane or current preparations inventoried in this study. The great majority of self-protective studies involving hurricanes have studied evacuation (Baker, 2000). Most preparedness studies that have measured stockpiling of food and water also included other behaviors such as buying insurance and practices to reduce damage. In their review of the broader household preparedness literature Tierney, Lindell,

Conclusions

Even with the caveats stated above, Florida residents report levels of preparedness that might be surprisingly high, given the demand for relief supplies following Wilma and other hurricanes. One explanation is that even if only 37% of the population needed ice, with 3 million households without electricity, that would translate into a very large number of people. The number of households without electricity following Wilma exceeded the number following any of the 2004 hurricanes. Another is

References (8)

  • E. Baker

    Hurricane evacuation in the United States

  • J. Beven et al.

    Atlantic Hurricane season of 2005

    Monthly Weather Review

    (2008)
  • R. Blendon et al.

    Hurricane readiness in high-risk areas

    (2008)
  • C. Cooper et al.

    Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the failure of homeland security

    (2006)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (92)

  • Far from home: Infrastructure, access to essential services, and risk perceptions about hazard weather events

    2022, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
    Citation Excerpt :

    One of the most important drivers of variations in vulnerability to risks during natural hazards is preparedness. Studies demonstrate how low preparation by various population groups increase the risks for being harmed due to disruptions to infrastructure services [6,13,14]. In order to capture variations in risks, previous researchers developed measures like the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) which shows how factors such as socioeconomic status and demographic variables affect the degree of risk some groups face [15].

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text