How Long Do People Remember Hurricanes

Question: How Long Do People Remember Hurricanes

Do we really learn anything from the impacts of a hurricane? With more and more people moving to coastal regions, it seems to be human nature to not learn from past hurricanes.

Answer: Even if you think you can never forget the pain of a terrible event in your life, sociologists would disagree. Even when it comes to devastating storms such as Hurricane Katrina, most people only remember the worst effects for about seven years. (B. Murrow, personal communication, as cited in NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS TPC-57, The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical yclones 1851 TO 2006 by Eric S. Blake, Edward N. Rappaport, and Chris W. Landsea, April 2007).

Remembering hurricanes is a huge problem for the National Weather Service (NWS). Even as advances are made with weather satellites, hurricane warning systems, hurricane safety, and evacuation procedure improvements, people often do not heed the warnings forecast by the NWS. In other words, even though Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating storms in US history, people will often think that another large storm, resulting in similar casualties and costs, will not strike the same place twice. In fact, hurricanes can and do strike the same places over and over again.

Combine public opinion with another statistic, and a recipe for disaster can be made. According to a study by Jarrell et al. (1992) (as cited in Blake, et al.), 85% of coastal populations from Texas to Maine have never experienced a direct hit by a major hurricane. Because of a surge of people moving towards coastal areas, the risk to individuals and communities along our coasts are significantly increased.

References:

• Adapted from NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS TPC-57, The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones 1851 to 2006 by Eric S. Blake, Edward N. Rappaport, and Chris W. Landsea, April 2007