There is banging at the door and a notice in the mail containing warnings to leave before disaster strikes. For many, this is how their ordeal starts. This is when the storm stops being something seen on television and becomes a threat to their lives. For some, their concerns are simple – do they have enough supplies, are all family members accounted for? For those, the act of leaving is a foregone conclusion, and for others, this decision may not be so easy to make.
Evacuation orders are voluntary. Thus, despite insistence from newscasters, state officials, and emergency first responders, there are always some that choose to stay in the face of a natural disaster. In 2012, it was Hurricane Sandy. Even though 70 to 80 per cent of New Jersey residents surveyed feared hurricane-force winds, only 20 per cent of them had evacuation plans. This year, it was Hurricane Florence. Some residents planned on staying, “despite a mandatory evacuation along the coast of South Carolina”. According to Cara Cuite, a psychologist, “There’s a certain population that’s never going to leave”. The reasons that people stay vary. Some fear looters will ravage their house before their return, others are unable to leave. Some harbour a mistrust for government shelters and evacuation orders, claiming the government is “crying wolf”, while most have experienced overcrowding and disorganization in emergency shelters.
Despite these reasons, there is little sympathy for these “stayers” – they are labelled stubborn and foolish. Perhaps its incorrect to think of these stayers as a problem in themselves but instead as a symptom of a larger problem. More precisely, there is a problem with the disaster response effort: A combination of misinformation and mismanagement erodes its credibility.
It is a common misconception that the main threat coming from a hurricane is the wind speeds. The greater threat for many comes from the rainfall, a hurricane brings significant amounts of rain into inland regions causing flooding miles away from the actual site of the storm. The lack of information regarding this, contributes to a false sense of security when one believes that they are far enough from the storm to avoid wind damage, and are caught off guard when their community floods from the rainfall.
Moreover, those that have experienced ‘near misses’ are found to be more resistant to leaving when an actual hurricane is inbound. Calling large hurricanes “superstorms” or the “storm of a century” leads to a false sense of security if one survives. It has been observed that those that have experienced at least one of these “super-storms” are far more resistant to evacuation orders for subsequent storms. However, often the reason for surviving a “super-storm” is not linked to one’s preparations but to factors beyond their control that helped them avoid the storm.
Even those that comply with orders suffer significant hardship, being forced evacuate for up to several months. Some return to find their homes and possessions stripped bare by looters, others to homes that are uninhabitable. This, potentially, could lead to future resistance to evacuation, as one may prefer weathering out the storm and preserving their property. During the California wildfires, entire communities defied evacuation orders for this reason, choosing to dig their own fire break. Reports of delays in evacuation routes and shelter overcrowding further encourage staying instead of evacuating. The advent of social media made it far easier to spread information both factual and exaggerated across the globe. In the recent California wildfires, several videos were uploaded onto twitter showing a slow column of vehicles moving through a burning forest. Images and videos like these may further bolster one’s decision to remain, justifying it as their houses and ditches provide better protection from the flames than the thin metal shell of a car.
After every natural disaster comes a period of mourning, as families rejoice as they are reunited with loved ones or mourn the fates of their loved ones. It comes as a time where communities and responders evaluate the emergency procedures and identify weaknesses. Yet the question remains to be asked: in a world where severe weather events are on the rise, are the current procedures enough? When storms the strength of Florence become a common occurrence, will the media be doing the people a disservice by claiming the next storm as “the storm of a century”? Are officials being overzealous in carrying out evacuation orders, eroding the people’s trust in these warnings? In a world where severe weather events have become more frequent, these questions must be answered to better prepare at-risk communities.
By Jason Liu
Please note that opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.
