Activities and social interactions during disaster evacuation

Abstract

Over the past decades there has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of disasters. The unpredictability of the circumstances around disasters means that proposed evacuation and transportation plans should be adaptable to the changing situation. Though the act of evacuating and the decision leading to it have been studied extensively, social aspects of the situation as well as other intermediate stops received less attention.This paper presents an investigation of data collected after a WUI fire that took place in Haifa, Israel, on November 24th, 2016. The results show individuals make multiple intermediate stops, before either evacuating or returning back home. A key goal within these stops is to visit home, which is a task undertaken the majority of households. A related phenomenon is that of waiting. The data shows that in many cases individuals report waiting at intermediate stops to learn more about the state of the event before taking further actions. With respect to their interactions, the results show that households tend to gather together during the event. This observation quantifies similar claims made in previous researches. These intra-household interactions are a main purpose of travel during such events. Within those, child pick-up stands out as a prominent activity. Child pick-up patterns suggest the involvement of a complex decision-making process which includes a wider social circle beyond household members. Thus, it is argued that the prediction of traffic during disasters would have to be based upon a full understanding of individuals' social along with intra-household spheres.