Addressing emergency preparedness inequality at an individual scale: a case study of Hurricane Harvey

With the rise of the Anthropocene and man-made climate change, extreme weather events like ultra-destructive hurricanes are predicted to become more frequent and increasingly devastating. Hurricane Harvey was an event through which inequalities in emergency preparedness on an individual scale can be observed. Data was collected through online surveys and measured the exposure of the individual to Hurricane Harvey, individual disruption to normalcy due to Hurricane Harvey, preparedness actions taken and their justification and also collected demographic information. Individuals in Houston who were impacted by Hurricane Harvey altered their emergency preparedness by acquiring relevant information and purchasing items to have on hand in case of emergency. Inequalities exist between income groups and racial/ethnic groups who reside within the same geographic region, with higher income and White non-Hispanic populations taking less emergency preparedness actions than low-income minority groups, largely because most participants who fell into the high-income majority category had already taken said emergency preparedness actions prior to Hurricane Harvey and therefore did not need to do so afterwards to prepare for the next major event. Low income and minority individuals took more emergency preparedness actions after Hurricane Harvey, but often low-cost ones. In all categories, and in all emergency preparedness actions, a vast majority of participants who did not take an action did not do so because they did not think these actions were necessary. This notion highlights the individual choices and opinions of people who are in an area that will likely be impacted by another major storm event, and why individual scale is important to address when searching for answers about where to begin changing a population’s emergency preparedness.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geography

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Massey, Erica May

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cidell , Julie L

• Emergency Preparedness
• Social Inequality
• Emergency Management
• Adaptive Capacity
• Individual Scale
• Practice Theory
• Human Geography
• Hurricane Harvey
• Houston
• Texas
• Natural Hazards
• Vulnerability
• Racial Inequality
• Income Inequality
• Hurricanes
• Normalcy
• Climate Change
• Cyclone
• Typhoon
• Gulf Hurricanes
• Scale

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Erica May Massey

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113079

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113079