Abstract
Tsunami risk was investigated as a platform for helping to understand the impact of community and psychological factors in natural disaster preparedness. Residents who lived within four meters of sea level in high and moderate tsunami risk areas of Vancouver Island were queried about possible influences on their preparation. Both community-level and psychological factors played significant roles. More community participation and fewer justifications for not preparing (the dragons of inaction) directly predicted reported preparation. The relation between sense of community and preparation was mediated by the level of community participation, and the relation between positive outcome expectancy and preparation was mediated by the dragons of inaction. Together, the resulting model accounted for 21% of the variance in reported tsunami preparation. Policy implications are discussed.
Highlights
Eighty percent of tsunamis occur around the Pacific Ocean "ring of fire," mainly as a result of shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates
Tsunami risk was investigated as a platform for helping to understand the impact of community and psychological factors in natural disaster preparedness
The relation between sense of community and preparation was mediated by level of community participation, and the relation between the psychological factor, positive outcome expectancy, and preparation was mediated by the dragons of inaction
Summary
Eighty percent of tsunamis occur around the Pacific Ocean "ring of fire," mainly as a result of shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates. The last historical tsunami to cause significant damage on the west coast of North America occurred on March 27, 1964 from a great (magnitude 9.2) earthquake in southern Alaska. It was the strongest earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second-strongest recorded in world history (Clague, Bobrowsky, and Hutchinson 2000, Clague and Orwin 2005). In the event of a tsunami, very little can be done to provide warnings for the coastal areas because of their often short travel time. This highlights the importance of effective education initiatives to improve residents’ level of tsunami preparedness
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