Citizen Participation in Emergency Response Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake

Abstract

Citizen response to the Loma Prieta earthquake emergency was assessed on representative samples from San Francisco and Santa Cruz Counties. Almost everyone in both counties personalized the disaster regardless of the amount of personal damage experienced, and about two-thirds of the public in both counties got involved in some sort of emergency response activity. The amount of mainshock damage experienced had the strongest predictive value for emergency response involvement. Our finding suggest that collective identification may be a necessary but not sufficient cause for collective action in response in disaster.