A model towards hurricane preparedness communication in the state of Florida, USA
Hurricanes are hazards that become disasters when they interact with the human environment. It is critical to elucidate how the minimally investigated hurricane preparedness communication paradigm impacts vulnerable populations. This study was conducted in a hurricane-prone U.S. region: Central and West Florida. The aim was to develop a model for hurricane-focused Disaster Management professionals that informs social-centric hurricane preparedness communication that is tailored to high-risk building occupants in Florida, and verify its accuracy. The research design was derived from the literature review and document review covering Disaster Management, hurricanes, hurricane preparedness plans, high-risk buildings, and communication. Interviews were conducted with six Disaster Management professionals and 12 high-risk building occupants. Five linguistic analysis techniques guided the data collection and analysis: Personal Experience Narrative, frame analysis, paradigmatic analysis, discourse analysis, and template analysis. Research results, including 10 exemplars and 27 themes, were synthesised to develop a model that incorporates hurricane preparedness language input from these stakeholders: Disaster Management professionals, high-risk building occupants, and academic institutions. Three Disaster Management professionals and four high-risk building occupants reviewed the model and found that it accurately represented their interview responses; the model was refined further based on these responses. This collaborative model offers a framework to generate holistic hurricane preparedness language by combining prescriptive language used by Disaster Management professionals and academic institutions with descriptive language used by high-risk building occupants. The hurricane preparedness language from this model can be utilised by Disaster Management professionals to optimise hurricane preparedness communication for high-risk building occupants in Florida.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations