Description |
The purpose of this study was to assess public response to the Loma Prieta earthquake emergency. Investigators wanted to be able to describe the public's experience with the earthquake and damage, and what the public did and did not do in response to the emergency. In addition, wanted to be able to explain why there were differences in how and why people responded; defined as an altruistic collective emergency response. The hypothesis of the investigators was that citizen involvement in response to the Loma Prieta earthquake emergency would 1) result as a consequence of victimization; 2) increase as a consequence of factors such as pre-event hazard salience and experience; 3) and would not be affected by nor vary by basic structural characteristics such as age, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, community integration, or role membership. Two populations were selected for study: San Francisco (n=734) and Santa Cruz (n=918) counties. Questions covered the types of damage experienced, injuries, exposure to media, emergency response activities, community integration, other earthquake experiences, household roles and responsibilities, and socioeconomic status.
|