RAPID: Tornado Hazard Perception and Warning for the April 27, 2011, Tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

该项目将对2011年4月27日在阿拉巴马州塔斯卡卢萨发生的EF-4龙卷风事件中遭受严重破坏的多个社会经济群体的风险认知和沟通进行深入的分层分析。这项研究将比较使用社交媒体和传统媒体作为即将到来的活动的信息来源。龙卷风摧毁了小镇经济较低的部分，那里居住着非裔美国人和西语裔社区，这项研究将调查这些脆弱的社会经济群体和老年居民与大学里流动性更强和更年轻的人群相比有什么反应，以及他们在活动期间使用了什么形式的交流。基于计算机的调查方法(对于留在避难所的人使用iPad)以及封闭式和开放式问题将有助于阐明这些不同群体使用的通信线路，以及之前的恶劣天气事件对居民在这场灾难中行为的影响。这项研究的关键是人们在预测良好的恶劣天气事件期间思考和理解他们面临的风险的方式。通过各种媒体(当地电视、广播、警报器、推特等社交媒体等)获取警告。而风暴路径上的人们在警告后的表现是这项研究的关键。该项目将调查社会人口群体的差异如何推动对不同的预警通信方法的需求。这项研究的结果将为社区官员和天气预报员提供更好的通信方法，以确保未来事件的安全和减少生命损失。

This project will perform an in-depth layered analysis of risk perception and communication in multiple socioeconomic groups where severe damage occurred during the April 27, 2011 EF-4 tornado events in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The research will compare the use of social media with traditional outlets as information sources about the impending event. The tornado destroyed lower-economic sections of town that housed African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods, and this research will investigate how these vulnerable socioeconomic groups and older residents reacted compared to the more mobile and younger populations at the university and what forms of communication they used during the event. Computer-based survey methods (using iPads for those remaining in shelters) with closed and open-ended questions will help illuminate the communication lines used by these various groups and the impacts of previous severe weather event "close-calls" on the behavior of residents during this disaster. Key to this research is the way people think about, and understand, the risk they face during well-forecasted severe weather events. Access to warnings through various media (local TV, radio, warning sirens, social media like Twitter, etc.) and how people in the storm's path behaved as a result of the warnings is the crux of this research. The project will investigate how differences in socio-demographic groups may drive the need for diverse methods of warning communication. Results from this research will inform community officials and weather forecasters on better communication methods to ensure safety and reduce loss of life in future events.