Household adjustment to seismicity in Oklahoma

Abstract

Earthquakes have manifested as a slow-onset hazard for the state of Oklahoma. While this shaking is resulting in considerable damage, we know little about how residents understand or are adjusting to this new hazard. To explore this issue, we deployed a survey in two Oklahoma communities with varying levels of earthquake exposure and experience to better understand the adjustments, such as purchasing earthquake insurance or installing earthquake latches, residents are intending to undertake within these communities. In line with the protection motivation theory, we found that hazard adjustment intentions were related to both threat appraisals (TAs), or an individual’s perceived probability of a hazard occurring and severity of a given threat, and coping appraisals (CAs), which captures the perceived efficacy and cost of an adjustment, with variations between the two sites. We also found that CAs had more explanatory power for adjustments than TAs.