Trust in FEMA and Individual Emergency Preparedness for Tornadoes in the United States

• In Event: CWC 14: Hazards governance

Abstract

Disasters cause tremendous damage to individual human life and property once they occur. Fortunately, previous disasters and their consequences have shown that citizens’ preparedness for emergency can make a big difference in the outcomes of these events. Giving due consideration to the importance of citizens’ role in emergency management, the FEMA provides guidelines for emergency preparedness. However, it has been observed that citizens do not seem to fully understand or simply ignore the importance of emergency preparedness. The lack of citizen cooperation with risk mitigation recommendations of FEMA leads to an important question: why are citizens not cooperative with FEMA’s recommendations and not prepared for their own safety? This article claims that individual perceived trust in FEMA plays a significant role as a mediator between individual predisposition characteristics and their decisions regarding emergency preparedness. By utilizing the representative survey data, 2013 Severe Weather and Society survey, this article seeks to investigates the role of trust in FEMA in individual level of emergency preparedness particularly for tornadoes in the United States. This article expects to contribute to scholarly discussion on significant determinants of individual risk mitigating behaviors for potential emergency situations.

Authors

• Junghwa Choi, University of Oklahoma

• Seunghyun Kim, University of Oklahoma