Shelter-in-Place Compliance During Hazardous Release Emergencies: The Effect of Communications Access in Terrorist/Accidental Chemical/Radiological Events

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

This study will look at factors affecting compliance to emergency shelter-in-place orders. Surprisingly little is known about this topic from a scientific perspective. This study will be an important step to drive our scientific understanding of shelter-in-place compliance. The application to public safety is highly significant. Problems in this critical tool for emergency response can place the lives of both citizens and emergency responders at risk. The new knowledge generated by this study will provide a unique and greatly needed resource for emergency planning. In that way it will serve the national welfare by providing a comprehensive report written specifically for the community of professional emergency planners. Finally, this study will directly serve the goal of improving national security. It will do so concerning the hazards associated with our technological society and also concerning potential terrorist acts. The project will have two parts. The first part of the project will look at the experience of sheltering-in-place. We will locate five appropriate incidents and send a rapid response mail survey to 500 individuals in each case. The survey will look at compliance and a wide variety of characteristics that may affect that behavior. The second part of the project will model shelter-in-place behavior. A sample of 1,200 participants will take part in an online experiment. The experiment will present 16 different emergency scenarios that the participants will be randomly assigned to. Participants will complete a questionnaire after they have been shown one of the scenario descriptions. The questionnaire will be identical across all treatment conditions and will be very similar to the questionnaires in the first part of the project. It will then be possible to make a comparison between what is learned from individuals who have actually experienced a recent shelter-in-place order and what is learned from the experiment.