A third of residents said “if government officials ordered an evacuation due to a major hurricane this season, they would not leave or are unsure if they would evacuate.” The groups most likely to wait out a major hurricane are “homeowners (39 percent), whites (41 percent) and long-term residents (45 percent).”
The reasons for not evacuating range from the sturdiness of their home (68 percent) and the crowded roads (54 percent) to worrying about their possessions being stolen or damaged (31 percent).
According to Robert J. Blendon, professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, “It will be a challenge for public officials to convince many of these people to leave their homes because they view their homes as safe and evacuating as dangerous.”
If you live in a high-risk hurricane area what would your response be to an evacuation order?
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