Household evacuation decisions and relationship to infrastructure disruption using evidence from Hurricane Irma
Name
10669_2025_Article_10019.pdf
Size
3.06 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9c3f7c55ab221f1defa9a95b9cb31649
Author(s)
Lamadrid, Alberto J.
Escaleras, Monica
Mitsova, Diana
Esnard, Ann-Margaret
Sapat, Alka
Date Issued
June 3, 2025
Journal
Environment Systems and Decisions
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Lamadrid, A.J., Escaleras, M., Mitsova, D. et al. Household evacuation decisions and relationship to infrastructure disruption using evidence from Hurricane Irma. Environ Syst Decis 45, 32 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Hurricanes and extreme weather hazards disrupt infrastructure services causing cascading effects for households and communities. In this work, we use survey data from households affected by Hurricane Irma in south and central Florida to empirically estimate the effects of infrastructure disruptions on household evacuation decisions and to assess what factors determine the length of evacuation, after controlling for socio-economic and demographic variables. We find that the decision to evacuate prior to Hurricane Irma was affected by the prospects of losing access to critical infrastructure services, primarily electricity services. Medical infrastructure is also associated with evacuation decisions, specifically access to healthcare facilities and prescription medications. Our findings suggest that social networks provide additional support to a subset of evacuees. For those displaced to friends’ and families’ accommodations, over 63% stayed over 4 days before returning, in the upper range of the evacuation duration. The respondents linked the duration of evacuation and their returning behavior to the restoration of electrical service and access to other critical services, including the availability of fuel, food, and water supplies. Our study provides insights into the interdependence between household recovery and critical infrastructure services, notably power, communications, transportation, and health care.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-025-10019-0
