Communication challenges in campus emergency planning: the case of Hurricane Dorian in Florida
- PDF / 2,756,024 Bytes
- 31 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 64 Downloads / 206 Views
Communication challenges in campus emergency planning: the case of Hurricane Dorian in Florida Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf1 · Jason von Meding1 Received: 30 March 2020 / Accepted: 12 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract University populations can sometimes be treated as homogenous by default, in the absence of intentional differentiation and targeted programs and services. Previous research has established this problem in the context of emergency management on US college campuses. The main objective of this research is to improve our understanding of communication challenges at institutions of higher education so that we might enhance communication strategies, with a particular focus on hurricanes. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to collect and analyze data; 400 subjects, students and employees from University of Florida (UF), were surveyed shortly after Hurricane Dorian. In addition, UF administrative leaders committed to student safety in emergencies were interviewed. The data analysis provided insights into six main challenges with regards to the UF emergency communication system: lack of customized communication, using the wrong communication platforms, over-communication, misleading information from untrusted sources, language barriers, and timing of orientation sessions. The research findings help in developing new knowledge about educational institutions, allowing evidence-based action to inform emergency communication and enhancing overall university disaster risk management. Keywords Emergency communication · Campus · Early warning system · Risk management · Hurricane
1 Introduction One of the biggest challenges to overcome at institutions of higher education is achieving an effective level of emergency communication that goes beyond technicalities to consider the sociological dimension of communication, which is concerned with understanding the dynamics of the social structure for vulnerable communities at these institutions (Manoj and Baker 2007). In order to integrate the paradigm of human behavior in the design of emergency communication, many studies have been conducted to improve the overall * Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf [email protected] Jason von Meding [email protected] 1
Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Natural Hazards
understanding of the way that demographic characteristics affect personal preparedness to disasters (Joseph 2005), with a main focus on gender, age, and ethnicity (Simms et al. 2013). Even though the literature regarding personal preparedness has been growing, the question of “why are some individuals at institutions of higher education prepared, while others are not?” remains generally answered only in part. This theoretical gap is a result of the complex interactions between behavioral, sociological, and psychological factors that influence peoples’ decisions to prepare (FEMA 2010), and the limited understanding of people’s response to eme
Data Loading...
