Problems Communicating Emergency Plans

It is easy to recognize the importance of communicating emergency plans to the public, but many problems can occur in the process. Members of government agencies sometime assume that once emergency planning information or a warning emanates from their office to the public, all people will easily receive and understand that information and consequently follow directions. In reality, some people will not receive this information or respond appropriately to it. For example, immigrants in the United States may not understand information in English. Poor households in developing countries may not have radios or televisions at home to receive the information.

Even among those who receive and understand the government's communications, some people will choose not to heed warnings and follow instructions given by the government due to a variety of cultural, language, economic, psychological, and social factors. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, many African Americans chose to stay in New Orleans despite dire evacuation warnings. Among many reasons used for not evacuating, some included: ideas that the hurricane was less severe than it really was; perceptions that they were not vulnerable to hurricane risks; financial constraints on their ability to evacuate the city; and concerns that criminals would steal their property while they were away.

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Figure 11.9: Hurricane evacuation route in New Orleans. Since the sign is shown in English, tourists and immigrants who have very low English language ability might not understand the meaning of the sign.
Credit: Work found at / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CC BY-SA 3.0

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This activity will not be graded but the Module Summative Assessment requires you to have the skills and knowledge it applies.

Question - Essay

Explain why neighborhood crime might be a reason for people not to evacuate their homes or businesses, even when presented with a mandatory evacuation order.

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Recognizing these and similar barriers to emergency communication, scholars have proposed the concept of cross-cultural communication in emergency management. Cross-cultural communication recognizes the diversity of target populations in terms of language and culture. When communicating with the public, emergency managers need to take these factors into account. They need to spread hazard information via different methods (for instance, languages other than English in the United States) and different media (for example, Twitter). Traditional media like television, radio, newspapers, Internet, and printed flyers are still important, but other ways of communicating, such as through social media and minority media outlets, become important in reaching these populations.