RAPID: Immediate Behavioral Response to Earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan

Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

A substantial portion of the US population at risk from earthquakes lives and works in structures that are likely to experience partial or complete collapse in the event of a major earthquake. There is no technology available that provides forewarning of local earthquakes, so people?s immediate response to earthquake shaking is very likely to determine whether they survive the event. Unfortunately, the research literature on people?s immediate response to earthquake shaking is quite small in comparison to the literature on responses to tornadoes or hurricanes or even the literature on pre-impact seismic hazard adjustments. In part, this is because major earthquakes are rare events in the US so there are few opportunities to study them. This makes it especially important to collaborate with researchers in New Zealand and Japan to examine their residents? immediate responses to the recent earthquakes in Christchurch and Tohoku. The proposed project will send questionnaires to 1200 residents in areas stricken by the Christchurch and Tohoku earthquakes. Using our standard mail survey procedures, we expect to get a response rate in the range of 30-50%. This project will extend the American investigators? recent research on the earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa by documenting people?s behavioral response during the earthquake shaking and all of the actions they took during the next half hour after the shaking stopped. In addition, we will collect data and conduct analyses of the effects of physical context (e.g., location in open spaces, vehicles, and buildings of various types) and social context (e.g., alone, with children, with known adults, or with adult strangers), previous earthquake experience (e.g., damage or casualties), hazard education (e.g., meetings or brochures), and household emergency preparedness (e.g., emergency plan, emergency kit, battery radio) on people?s behavioral responses. A major contribution of this study will be to assess the effects of people?s immediate emotional reactions on their behavioral responses. Although people?s emotional reactions are likely to have a significant effect on their behavior, this class of variables has been almost completely ignored in previous research on earthquake response and has been studied inadequately even in the few cases when it has been addressed.