Evaluating disaster education: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's TsunamiReadyTM community program and risk awareness education efforts in New Hanover County, North Carolina

This chapter describes the evaluation of the TsunamiReadyTM-based educational materials distributed in New Hanover County, North Carolina. The authors evaluate whether educational materials about tsunami risk increased the perception of hazard risk, information, knowledge, and preparedness behaviors...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New directions for evaluation 2010-07, Vol.2010 (126), p.79-93
Main Authors: Horan, Jennifer, Ritchie, Liesel Ashley, Meinhold, Stephen, Gill, Duane A, Houghton, Bruce F, Gregg, Chris E, Matheson, Tom, Paton, Douglas, Johnston, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Computation
Consciousness
Counties
Disaster Preparedness
Disasters
Hazards
Knowledge
Management
Natural Disasters
North Carolina
Risk
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Summary:This chapter describes the evaluation of the TsunamiReadyTM-based educational materials distributed in New Hanover County, North Carolina. The authors evaluate whether educational materials about tsunami risk increased the perception of hazard risk, information, knowledge, and preparedness behaviors. There are three main findings. First, local knowledge of regional hazards remains a strong predictor of changes in attitudes and behavior. Second, educational materials about unlikely hazards have only a moderate impact. Third, information seeking and preparedness behavior is a function of general psychological attributes such as personal risk calculations. The authors argue that a community's hazard experiences and the frequency and severity of hazard events play an important role in receptiveness to educational efforts as well as disaster preparedness. Adapted from the source document.
ISSN:1097-6736
DOI:10.1002/ev.331