A Systematic Review of the Factors Affecting the Cyclone Evacuation Decision Process in Bangladesh (original) (raw)
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EARLY WARNINGS AND RESPONSES TO EVACUATION ORDERS: THE CASE OF CYCLONE AILA IN BANGLADESH
Jahangirnagar University Journal of Science, 2013
Cyclone Aila hit in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh and India on 25 May, 2009. Despite cyclone warning evacuation orders for the coastal residents of Bangladesh, thousands of individuals didn't take safe places in due time. This paper attempts to explore the dissemination of early warning systems, assesses the warning responses, and examines the reasons why many people had lately evacuated during cyclone Aila in the study area. Field data collected from 138 Aila affected households of Sreenagar Kalinagar mauza of Dacope Upazila, Khulna, Bangladesh. As the study area was not affected for long time by atmospheric hazards; for this preparedness mechanisms were not adequate to enforce evacuation orders. The study revealed that attribute of warning message couldn't understand rightly among the inhabitants, thus the residents of the study area were not evacuated at right time and in right places. Field data also revealed why many people had lately evacuated. The reasons were mainly transferring the household materials in the safe places, fear of burglary and lately received warnings. Based on the study findings, we recommend activated the hazards preparedness mechanisms especially CPP activities, introduce mobile phone warning message; and construct more public shelters as well as ensure proper utilization of existing shelters for similar events in future.
Disasters, 2020
Survey questionnaires were administered among populations affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013 and Hurricane Maria in Dominica in 2017 to test the efficacy of early warning systems in prompting residents to take appropriate action ahead of severe hazards. Both events were rare and extreme but occurred in locations that regularly experience less severe tropical cyclones. The research assessed if, how, and when residents received warnings, what instructions were given, and where and when people decided to seek safety. In both of the cases under review, residents were aware of the approaching storms, but critical information on their severity and potential impacts was either not received in time or not understood fully, resulting in low levels of evacuation and safety‐seeking behaviour. This paper suggests that planning and public communication need to focus on the uncertainty surrounding the severity and multifaceted nature of tropical cyclones and accompanying...
Keywords: Cyclone Sidr, Cyclone Warning, Evacuation Orders, Cyclone Shelters, Bangladesh, 2014
"The objective of this paper is to identify the causes of people’s noncompliance with evacuation initiatives during cyclone sidr and comparing with previous other studies to find out common responsible factors for non-evacuation. Besides, the role of selected socio-economic and demographic variables on human evacuation response behaviour to cyclone warning will also be explored. A total 331 out of 792households living in three villages devastated by cyclone Sidr were selected. A questionnaire survey was conducted at household level following simple random sampling procedure. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are used to analyze data. The present study finds that more than 90 percent of respondents had received cyclone warning and nearly 41 percent had evacuated in formal and informal cyclone shelters. However, only 13.6 percent had formally evacuated to the designated cyclone shelters. Following of evacuation order significantly increased in 2007 (sidr) than 1970 (the great Bhola) and 1991 (Gorky) cyclones. Even though Bangladesh has made significant progress in cyclone warning dissemination, there still some critical deficiencies in evacuation response. Reasons are broadly cyclone shelter related, warning message related and respondent’s perception related. Such reasons are in fact consistent with previous studies on Sidr, Gorky and the Great Bhola cyclones. Besides, several factors such as location, age, gender, education, primary occupation, distance from cyclone shelter and access to road and cyclone shelter play vital roles for evacuation decisions. Based on the findings, the present study recommend improved cyclone early warning, and monitoring how far warning messages are transmitted to local people, utilization of existing shelter and construction small denser shelter, assurance of post-cyclone security, and awareness creation through education campaign by targeting vulnerable groups and places for disaster risk reduction. Keywords: Cyclone Sidr, Cyclone War"
Progress in Disaster Science, 2019
It is well known that Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Especially, climate related 22 disasters like flood and cyclone are most common in Bangladesh. Among all disasters, considering the loss of lives cy-23 clones impose the most severe impacts in Bangladesh. There are number of studies focusing loss and damages associ-24 ated with different cyclones in Bangladesh. Researchers also identified different factors related to evacuation decision 25 making process. However, in case of Bangladesh, analyzing people's experience during devastating cyclone, only a few 26 researches tried to identify the factors that guided them to take evacuation decision and to select evacuation destina-27 tion. With empirical study on 200 people of Gabura Union that were the worst affected during cyclone Aila, this re-28 search analyzes how different groups of people are influenced by different factors and take evacuation decision and 29 finally choose their evacuation destination. Further, unlike the other researches, in addition to the examination of 30 evacuation influencing factors, this research attempts to categorize people into different groups based on their risk per-31 ception attitude and actions during evacuation. It noticed four types of people termed as serious, reluctant, undecided 32 and non-evacuee. Evacuation behavior or actions, factors leading to evacuation destination and final evacuation des-33 tination of all these four groups are identified. Analyzing the actions and experiences of different groups of people this 34 study explore that content of cyclone warning and evacuation order, timing of evacuation order, evacuation prepara-35 tion time, people's risk perception, weather condition, condition of roads and cyclone shelters and finally the distance 36 of cyclone shelters are important factors to influence people's evacuation decision and selecting evacuation destina-37 tion. In fact, different groups of people are needed to be treated differently during designing and implementing differ-38 ent evacuation awareness programs, trainings, drills and actions. Therefore, this type of grouping of people based on 39 their evacuation behavior and influencing factors would greatly serve further policy actions related to evacuation.
Who Evacuates When Hurricanes Approach? The Role of Risk, Information, and Location*
Social Science Quarterly, 2010
Objective. This article offers an expanded perspective on evacuation decision making during severe weather. In particular, this work focuses on uncovering determinants of individual evacuation decisions. Methods. We draw on a survey conducted in 2005 of residents in the eight-county Houston metropolitan area after Hurricane Rita made landfall on September 24, 2005. Results. We find that evacuation decisions are influenced by a heterogeneous set of parameters, including perceived risk from wind, influence of media and neighbors, and awareness of evacuation zone, that are often at variance with one of the primary measures of risk used by public officials to order or recommend an evacuation (i.e., storm surge). We further find that perceived risk and its influence on evacuation behavior is a local phenomenon more readily communicated by and among individuals who share the same geography, as is the case with residents living inside and outside official risk areas. Conclusions. Who evacuates and why is partially dependent on where one lives because perceptions of risk are not uniformly shared across the area threatened by an approaching hurricane and the same sources and content of information do not have the same effect on evacuation behavior. Hence, efforts to persuade residential populations about risk and when, where, and how to evacuate or shelter in place should originate in the neighborhood rather than emanating from blanket statements from the media or public officials. Our findings also raise important policy questions (included in the discussion section) that require further study and consideration by those responsible with organizing and implementing evacuation plans.
Non-response to Early Warning: A Comparative Study of Three Recent Cyclones in Bangladesh
The Dhaka University journal of Earth and environmental sciences, 2020
This study aims to explore the different reasons that influence people's decision on responses to early warning. A questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussion have been applied to obtain data from the study area for this study. The research reveals that jerry-built roads, fear of theft, disbelief and mistrust about warnings, lack of awareness about hazards and the poor state of the cyclone shelters are the main reason for nonevacuation during cyclones. Besides, past experiences of warning failures, superstitious religious beliefs, fatalism, safety issues for women also worked to influence people's decision to leave their houses during the warning periods. This study calls the attention of the disaster planners at these crucial findings for taking an immediate step to improve the conditions and save lives in future cyclones. It is highly dangerous to stay at the vulnerable houses during cyclones. The practical implementation of a good disaster preparation plan can be futile if inhabitants are no-responsive to the warning. This study recommends improvement of infrastructures, proper maintenance and construction of shelters, improved security at evacuated houses and the shelters alongside the awareness programs for the inhabitants of the vulnerable locations. It is expected that these interventions will increase the efficiency of the cyclone preparedness plan for future cyclones in Bangladesh.
Evacuation decision making and behavioral responses: Individual and household
Natural Hazards Review, 2007
Researchers have examined a wide range of factors that affect evacuation decisions after people hear hurricane forecasts and other information. This review of the literature focuses on three broad areas of research that often overlap: warning, risk perception, and evacuation research. Whereas it is challenging to demarcate the literature along these lines, we believe each of these areas represents important dimensions of evacuation decision making. The literature on warning focuses to varying degrees on warning as a social process, rather than a simple result of hearing official warnings. Warnings by themselves do not motivate evacuation-people must perceive risk. The extensive literature on objective and subjective processes in risk perception has to be evaluated. The review concludes with a focus on some important work in modeling evacuation and evacuation decision-making. Finally, we present recommendations for future research that draws on the strength of earlier work while focusing more directly on risk, the information included in hurricane forecasts, and the timing of those forecasts.
IDRiM Journal, 2021
Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries worldwide. Every year, the country sees a small- or large-scale disaster, with past disaster history showing that cyclones have been a major phenomenon. Cyclone Bulbul made landfall on the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on November 10, 2019, with an average storm surge height of 1.0 to 1.5 meters—resulting in the inundation of low-lying areas in 14 coastal districts. This study conducted a questionnaire survey of 413 households in Gabura, a union under Shyamnagar Upazila of Satkhira District, from mid-February to mid-March 2020 to investigate respondents’ evacuation experience during Cyclone Bulbul. The questionnaire survey comprised both qualitative and quantitative approaches that analyzed disaster preparedness level, successful evacuation scenarios, and early evacuation decisions and their implementation in Gabura Union during Cyclone Bulbul. The survey results revealed that approximately 55% of the respondents evacuated du...
Warning systems as social processes for Bangladesh cyclones
Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to connect the theoretical idea of warning systems as social processes with empirical data of people’s perceptions of and actions for warning for cyclones in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach is used in two villages of Khulna district in southwest Bangladesh: Kalabogi and Kamarkhola. In total, 60 households in each village were surveyed with structured questionnaires regarding how they receive their cyclone warning information as well as their experiences of warnings for Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and Cyclone Aila in 2009. Findings People in the two villages had a high rate of receiving cyclone warnings and accepted them as being credible. They also experienced high impacts from the cyclones. Yet evacuation rates to cyclone shelters were low. They did not believe that significant cyclone damage would affect them and they also highlighted the difficulty of getting to cyclone shelters due to poor roads, leading them to prefer ...