Hurricane Maria Emergency Communications Investigation: Final Household Survey (100 Respondents)

Hurricane Maria Project

Interview Guide & Script for

HURRICANE MARIA EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INVESTIGATION:

HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW

Respondents to this interview will have already completed the household survey and therefore meet the required screening criteria.

OMB Control #0693-0078

Expiration Date: 07-31-2022

Script for Introduction & Consent:

“Thank you for meeting with us today. We are investigating information sharing and emergency risk communication during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico on behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We are interested in your experience and perspective on emergency communications and information before and during Hurricane Maria on September 20, 2017. Since the hurricane was over three years ago, we understand that you may not remember everything perfectly. That’s okay, please just share to the best of your ability. We expect findings from these interviews will lead to beneficial recommendations to policy, procedures, and codes and benefit life safety during future hurricanes. 

With your permission, our conversation will be audio recorded and transcribed into a written record for this purpose and for future research. Do you give us permission to record and use your personal experience for this purpose?”

C1. __ Yes (proceed with recording) __ No (If selected, exit survey)

[Once permission is obtained, start recording and continue with prompts below.]

“This interview poses no risks or benefits to you personally. Your participation is voluntary and without compensation. You may refuse to answer any question raised. Any sensitive or personal information that you provide will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. We will not release personal information such as your name, phone number, or address. You will remain anonymous and the information collected will be combined or aggregated with information that we obtain from your survey data and other individuals. Information collected in this interview may be shared by NIST with researchers at NIST or with researchers outside NIST. The information that you provide may be used in future research. Any future research will include protections to ensure that both the sharing and use of the information complies with the conditions just described.”

“Do you consent to our using the information that you provide in the way described?

C2. Please confirm consent by selecting one of the following:

Consents__ (If selected, proceed to screening questions)

Does not consent__ (If selected, exit survey)

[Indicate whether the interviewee has/has not provided consent.]

Introductory Statement: we’d like to begin by asking you some brief questions related to Hurricane Irma’s impact on your perceptions of and preparation for Hurricane Maria. Please respond in one or two sentences.

Section A. Hurricane Irma’s Influence on Perceptions of Hurricane Maria

1. In what ways did you think that Hurricane Maria would be the same or different from Hurricane Irma?

2. What was the status of information availability immediately following Hurricane Irma and before Hurricane Maria?

3. What did you need to prepare for Hurricane Maria that you didn’t have as a result of Hurricane Irma?

Prompt: We’re now going to ask you some more in depth questions related to the communication environment prior to Hurricane Maria’s landfall. Please respond to the best of your recollection.

Section B. Pre-Event Emergency Communication

4. What information do you remember being particularly helpful, or impactful on your reactions or preparation for the storm and why?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. From whom did you receive this information, and through what means (i.e. TV, online, in-person)? If possible, please lead us through a detailed timeline of the information and warnings that stand out in your mind.

1. Conversely, what information do you remember being particularly unhelpful, confusing, or difficult to understand? Why?

2. At that time, who did you feel was the most trustworthy source of information about Hurricane Maria? Why? And, has that changed since the storm?

3. Do you recall if information about the storm was fairly consistent between different sources (e.g. the government, the media, the National Weather Service, etc.)? Or, do you remember the information from various sources being different or conflicting in any way? Please explain.

Prompt: Now we’re going to discuss the role of social media prior to Hurricane Maria’s landfall. Please respond to the best of your recollection.

Section C. Pre-Event Emergency Communication on Social Media

8. What social media services did you use prior to Hurricane Maria?

9. Did you primarily go to social media to get information about the hurricane, to share information, or both?

10. What information about the hurricane did you share with others?

11. What information were others sharing about the hurricane?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. Whose information do you believe was most trustworthy on Twitter and why?

2. Was the information from your friends/family on Twitter more or less trustworthy than official sources and how?

1. How heavily did you rely on social media for information about Hurricane Maria at that time? Did you believe that information to be accurate? Most current?

2. How valuable is information from social media services when compared to other information outlets for shaping your hurricane response and why?

Prompt: We’re now going to ask you some questions related to your process for considering and deciding whether to evacuate or stay in your home for Hurricane Maria. Please answer the next series of questions about your actions prior to Hurricane Maria’s landfall to the best of your recollection.

Section D. Evacuation

14. What information or cues influenced your decision to evacuate or not evacuate (for example, weather information, the news, warnings from friends, family, or official sources, seeing others evacuating)?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. Of those information and cues, what was the most impactful on your evacuation decision-making?

1. When was the decision to evacuate or stay made? Who made it? Was it prompted by a mandatory order? And what was your role in deciding?

2. When you made this decision, did you feel you were in danger or at risk and, if so, what were your main concerns and priorities?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. Were there any trade-offs you had to make between different priorities or concerns?

1. Were there any protective actions that you wanted to take but were unable to? Why was that?

2. Did you regret your decision or would you change it if you could do it over? Why?

3. What information was missing that could have helped you make your decision?

4. If you were thinking of evacuating, were there shelters nearby? What kinds of things made it difficult to utilize a shelter?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. Could you describe the process from leaving your home to arriving at the final evacuation location? Please note how you got there, made decisions, and any barriers you faced during your evacuation.

Prompt: We’re now going to ask you some questions related to the communication environment after Hurricane Maria’s landfall. Please respond to the best of your recollection.

Section E. Post-Event Emergency Communication

21. In the days immediately following Hurricane Maria, what were your “go-to” sources of information and why?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. In the days immediately following Hurricane Maria, what information was most important for you to know?

2. Did you experience any challenges accessing the information you needed to know and why?

1. How did Hurricane Maria impact your overall quality of life?

Follow up questions: {if not already addressed in the interviewee’s response}

1. What kinds of information or activities could have helped prevent these impacts?

Prompt: We’re almost finished with the interview. We just have a few remaining questions.

Section F. Ending Questions

23. If you were to go through an experience like Hurricane Maria again, is there anything you would suggest for yourself or others do differently? Can you explain why and how?

24. What changes to information technology, dissemination, understanding, source, or anything else do you think need to be made to ensure people under hurricane threat take appropriate protective action?

25. Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us that we didn’t already discuss?

Prompt: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us about your experience with Hurricane Maria.

Required Script for Paperwork Reduction Act:

“A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0693-0078. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information collection. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the National Institute of Standards and Technology at: Katherine Johnson, Social Scientist and National Construction Safety Team Member, NIST Engineering Laboratory; or contact at katherine.johnson@nist.gov.”

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