Survey of Social Support Networks and Evacuation Intentions among Households in Houston, Texas

Abstract

This study reports findings from a survey investigating Houston households’ social support networks: family and friends who can provide them with temporary accommodations during a hurricane or other disaster-related evacuation. Findings can inform the development of information systems for evacuation management by describing households’ social support network characteristics and evacuation destination and accommodation intentions, as well as the factors these households consider when choosing an evacuation destination. Highlights include differences in the size and range of household social support networks, and the relative tendency of households without social support to lack evacuation plans and prefer hotels/motels and public shelters compared to households with social support. These findings can inform the design of information systems that simulate and predict large-scale evacuation behavior for different geographic and evacuation contexts.