Disaster Education, Household Preparedness, and Stress Responses Following Hurricane Hugo

Abstract

This study examines the impact of disaster education and household preparedness activities on stress responses among adults in the Charleston, South Carolina area following Hurricane Hugo. Two samples, composed of 198 adults who had participated in special disaster education workshops sponsored by the Earthquake Education Center (EEC) at Charleston Southern University, and a general sample of 511 adults in the Charleston area were interviewed by telephone. The data reveal that (a) those who had participated in disaster education programs generally (other than the EEC programs) reported higher levels of stress than did those who did not participate in such programs, although this relationship was not significant; (b) engaging in household preparedness activities resulted in higher levels of stress; and (c) controlling for other pertinent variables, the EEC workshop sample reported significantly higher levels of both physiological and psychological stress than did the general sample. Possible reasons for these unexpected findings are discussed.