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Community Processes: Warning and Evacuation

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Handbook of Disaster Research

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Almost every day people evacuate from their homes, businesses or other sites, and even ships in response to actual or predicted threats or hazards. Evacuation is the primary protective action utilized in large-scale disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, releases of hazardous or nuclear materials, and high-rise building fires and explosions. Although often precautionary, protecting human lives by withdrawing populations during times of threat remains a major emergency management strategy. There have been some instances in which removal of property and livestock to safer places has been a major evacuation activity for some businesses such as automobile or boat dealers or specialty farm managers, but these evacuation activities lack systematic validation. Although there is some excellent research on evacuation behavior in other countries, such as the Holland floods in the early 1950s, the focus of this chapter is on evacuation behavior in the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

    John H. Sorensen & Barbara Vogt Sorensen

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  1. John H. Sorensen
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  2. Barbara Vogt Sorensen
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Sorensen, J.H., Sorensen, B.V. (2007). Community Processes: Warning and Evacuation. In: Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32353-4_11

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