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The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina

Decent Essays

1. INTRODUCTION
During the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, even though the National Weather Service (NWS) had forecasted the storm characteristics information on wind speed, storm surge and rainfall accurately, the local authorities responded inadequately (Kent, 2006; Basher, 2006). The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina pumps a series of discussions on emergency responses in a hurricane hazard (e.g., Basher, 2006; Kent, 2006; Kamarck, 2007; Spencer, 2013). Researches draw their attention to this discussion focused on three questions: (1) who should be in charge (e.g., Kamarck, 2007; Badiru and Racz, 2013; Barnhill, 2013; Cova et al., in press)? (2) To do what (e.g., Lindell and Perry 1992; Kim et al., 2006; Wu, Lindell & Prater, 2015; Cova et al., …show more content…

According to the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) by Lindell and Perry (1992; 2004; 2012) which summarized previous researches on public’s responses to environmental threats, people would be made aware of a threat by social warnings, social cues, and environmental cues (Huang, Lindell & Prater, in press a; Lindell, in press), then assess their risk and identify potentials protective actions (PAs), and ultimately take an appropriate PA (Huang et al., 2012, Huang, Lindell & Prater, in press b). Hence, local authorities, on the one hand, have the responsibilities to carry the PARs to the people who are at risk (Basher, 2006; Lindell and Perry, 2012), whereas risk area households’ response efforts, on the other hand, would rely on the guidance of officials’ PARs (Baker 1991, 1995; Huang et al. in press a; Lin et al. 2014). However, households’ response efforts are often limited by their information availability (Chen et al., 2007). Consequently, the failure of the delivery of the appropriate PARs in time would either set those households in danger or push them to follow peers’ response actions (Huang et al., 2012; Huang, Lindell & Prater, in press a; b). It is a significant gap Cova et al. (in press) has pointed out that local authorities tend to struggle on PARs selections and the triggers from “wait and see” to “take immediate action” (see also Dye, Eggers, and Shapira, 2014). Nonetheless, there are very few studies examine the behavior of local

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