Abstract
Immediately after an earthquake event, how long people survive in place using their limited resources is relatively unknown, as is the behavioural response to resource scarcity. Computer-aided personal interviews were conducted with 172 householders to examine how many days people believed they were able to shelter in place without official aid in a simulated earthquake event, taking into account not only the water, food and medicine they had stockpiled, but also the availability of less obvious sources (such as water in the hot water cylinder or food from gardens). Based on recommended daily resource allowances, after a 3-day period without aid, 46 % of people had run out of at least one of these necessary resources and this increased to 90 % of people after 7 days. After a 7-day period without official aid, there is an increase in people’s perceived willingness to (1) ask for assistance from neighbours (but a reduction in people’s willingness to offer aid to others), (2) commit less socially acceptable acts (such as breaking into an empty house to take food and water) and (3) commit unsafe acts (such as drinking unpurified water). The results are discussed with regard to particular post-disaster social behaviours and how social norms shift as people adapt to survive.
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Notes
New Zealand is a country that faces a number of natural hazard risks including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as serious weather events.
To calculate the actual number of days of food people were asked how much of each food type they currently had at home (from 20 broad categories). Each food type was assigned an average energy (kJ) value, so that the total energy of the available food could be totalled. The daily energy intake of the household was then calculated on a per person basis (with people over 7 years requiring 8,700 kJ/day and people under 7 years old requiring 5900 kJ/day) to derive the number of days of food available.
The high standard deviations (combined with high maximum values) indicated a positive skew, so it was more appropriate to examine the median number of days rather than looking at an average.
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Acknowledgements
This research was conducted within a programme of public good research funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (OPSX0002), New Zealand. The authors would like to acknowledge the input of Vince Dravitzki and Stephen Murray in the development of this research. We would also like to thank Abigail Harding for her assistance in the data collection.
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Thomas, J.A., Mora, K. Community resilience, latent resources and resource scarcity after an earthquake: Is society really three meals away from anarchy?. Nat Hazards 74, 477–490 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1187-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1187-3