Disaster vulnerability from Winter Storm Benji with Twitter data

Abstract

This study highlights how Winter Storm Benji played a significant role in human responses and displacements on the basis of a multitude of periods, geographic scales, and social vulnerability. This study collects Twitter data between November 20 and December 24, 2017 for Winter Storm Benji in the United States, which was one of the heaviest December storms on record in the southern United States. This study finds that tweets during the week of the winter storm were roughly four times higher than those in the pre‐winter storm week. Second, the southern United States significantly shows a higher proportion of tweets during the winter storm week. Third, US states show different displacements with other variables controlled. For example, Texas and Louisiana show less displacements than Florida. Fourth, vulnerable people responded differently to the natural disaster according to social vulnerability categories. For instance, vulnerable people in the housing type & transportation category are highly associated with the natural disaster event, whereas those in the socioeconomic status category are not related to it.