RAPID/Collaborative Research: Households Immediate Response During a Night Time Earthquake

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project examines household earthquake risk perceptions and immediate responses during a nighttime earthquake, in particular, the 2018 Eastern Taiwan (Haulien) earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2018. This project is innovative because most of the data on immediate response to earthquakes has been collected from daytime earthquakes, and this study can identify patterns of protective action that differ from those in daytime earthquakes. Better understanding of responses can help emergency management agencies provide appropriate emergency services to their communities and help households to better prepare for future events. In addition, this project will use an earthquake immediate response questionnaire that has been used in other earthquakes, including a US territory. This standardized questionnaire will be used to assess cultural differences in variables such as risk perception, self-reported shaking intensity, and emotional responses. The results of this study can be used to examine how cultural differences impact US residents' disaster response in culturally diverse regions of the US. Another earthquake impacting the US is inevitable and understanding people's response is critical to protecting our national health, prosperity, and welfare when the event occurs. This project tests the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), which supposes that people's risk perceptions and responses are shaped by environmental/social cues and physical/household/social context when warnings are absent. In addition, this project tests the degree to which households' environmental/social cues, risk perceptions, and earthquake immediate response differ in urban and rural areas that vary in their shaking intensity and duration. This data expands a multinational earthquake response dataset that will allow investigators to conduct a statistical meta-analysis that will identify commonalities and differences in household response across different earthquakes throughout the Pacific Rim. The results of this study can provide an important empirical test of the degree to which research support for the PADM from hurricanes and flash floods also extends to nighttime earthquakes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.