Environment

Fleeing from Hurricane Irma: Empirical Analysis of Evacuation Behavior Using Discrete Choice Theory

Wong, Steven D.
Pel, Adam J.
Shaheen, Susan A.
2020

This paper analyzes the observed decision-making behavior of a sample of individuals impacted by Hurricane Irmain2017(n = 645) by applying advanced methods based in discrete choice theory. Our first contribution is identifyingpopulation segments with distinct behavior by constructinga latent class choice model for the choice whether to evacuate or not. We find two latent segments distinguished by demographics and risk perception that tend to be either evacuation-keen or evacuation-reluctant and respond differently to mandatory evacuation orders.Evacuees subsequently face a multi-...