The issue of rising number of disasters, the overwhelming increase in number of older adults, and historically flawed evacuations presents real challenges. Disasters can strike anywhere, any time, and have devastating consequences. Since 1900, the number of Americans 65 and older has increased 12 times (from 3.1 million to 36.3 million). During the next two decades, the number of American baby boomers, now aged 45-64, who turn 65, will increase by 40%. As evidenced by recent disasters, the imperfections and vulnerabilities of flawed evacuations for older adults are still present. This study examined the level of willingness to evacuate among older adults in the event of a disaster. Despite the extensive literature on disasters and evacuation, some significant questions regarding evacuation and older adults have not been addressed. This study addressed the following concerns: (1) What is the willingness among older adults to evacuate when asked to do so by emergency management officials? (2) Does the call to evacuate being mandatory versus voluntary influence the willingness of seniors to evacuate? (3) Do preconditions (Gender, Marital Status, Age, Ethnic Origin, and Education Levels) influence the willingness to evacuate among older adults? The sample population consisted of 765 voluntary participants aged 60 years and older from thirty senior/community centers within seven counties in the State of Oklahoma. A group administered survey (The Disaster Evacuation Survey) included a total of 15 questions. This study revealed the following findings: older adults are more likely to comply with a mandatory evacuation order. Individuals with college degrees are more likely to comply with mandatory evacuations. African Americans are more likely to comply with a voluntary request. American Indian/Alaskan Native are more likely to comply with mandatory evacuation orders from emergency officials. Important practical implications for emergency officials responding to vulnerable older adults in disaster situations are also provided.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 200 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: How people pereceive the risks associated with natural hazards contributes to their willingness to take protective action. Such action may be constrained by prevailing socio-economic and place-specific conditions that restrict or inform the choice of protective measures available to the individual. Vulnerability to the impacts of extreme geophysical events increases when the range of alternatives is limited or misinformed. Many evacuees from a potentially violent volcanic eruption in Ecuador returned to their home town of Banos while it was still under an evacuation order in 2000 and considered to be a high risk area by officials. / ABSTRACT: The research examined four main questions: (1) What economic conditions confronted Baños evacuees? (2) What political or other social events occurred while they were evacuated that limited their perceived range of options? (3) What information was available about prior eruptions of the volcano and other local natural hazards? and (4) What were the characteristics of the economic base of Baños? These questions were investigated using data from interviews with evacuees, government and non-governmental officials, census and other statistical information, scholarly texts and newspaper reports. The research suggests that economic conditions made it extremely difficult for people to relocate to other communities. When a violent eruption did not occur immediately, and few direct impacts of the eruptions were experienced in Banos, many people chose to return home in an effort to reestablish themselves economically. / ABSTRACT: These people perceived the volcano hazard in Baños to be far less threatening than the economic destitution associated with evacuation. This perception may have been influenced by factors other than the socio-economic context, including efforts of political leaders and tourist business owners to effect the town's economic recovery. These efforts included an aggressive publicity campaign that minimized the risk posed by the volcano. Besides encouraging tourists to return, the campaign also encouraged evacuees to do so. Finally, among some residents, religious beliefs may have contributed to perceptions that they would not be harmed in the event of an explosive eruption. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Alors même que la France et la Grande-Bretagne s’apprêtent à déclarer la guerre à l’Allemagne, plus d’un million de personnes sont évacuées de la frontière franco-allemande. Encadrés de part et d’autre de la frontière par les autorités civiles et militaires, les Alsaciens, Lorrains, Badois et Sarrois, vivant entre les lignes défensives (ligne Maginot, Ligne Siegfried) et la frontière, sont transportés vers l’intérieur de leur pays respectifs. Ces mesures d’évacuation du début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale constituent pour les deux sociétés, après la mobilisation des hommes en âge de se battre, la seconde grande mesure de guerre faisant passer ces deux sociétés civiles à l’état de sociétés en guerre. Cette transformation a non seulement des conséquences au niveau social, politique et économique, mais également des effets au niveau communicationnel, ce qui constitue l’objet de cette thèse. Il s’agit, à travers le phénomène de l’évacuation, de faire ressortir les mécanismes de communication des États au niveau de leur propagande nationale, de faire apparaître les interactions et méthodes de communication entre les autorités locales et les évacués et enfin d’éclairer les systèmes de communication au sein des groupes des évacués à travers l’analyse des rumeurs de pillages des zones évacuées. Cette approche permet de retracer une histoire de la communication dans les sociétés en guerre française et allemande dans laquelle fusionnent les perspectives ascendante et descendante mais également comparative et transnationale. Ainsi, la communication des sociétés en guerre apparaît comme le fruit de négociations et d’interactions en constante évolution entre acteurs aux intérêts différents. De cette étude ressortent également les limites d’influence des deux États au sein de leur population, qu’il s’agisse d’un État républicain démocratique telle la Troisième République ou bien d’un État dictatorial aux ambitions totalitaires comme le fût le « Troisième Reich ». / While France and Great-Britain were about to declare war on Germany, more than one million persons were evacuated from the Franco-German Border. Led on both side of the border by civilian and military authorities, the Alsatians, Lorrainers, Badners and Saarlanders living between the defence lines (Maginot-Line, Siegfried Line) were transported inside their own country. These evacuations measures formed – after the mobilization on the front of the men in-age to fight – the second important measure of war, which turned these civil societies into war societies. This transformation has not only consequences on political, economic and social level, but also on communication, which is the topic of this doctoral thesis. The evacuations phenomena allow us to shed light on state propaganda on a national and international level, to reveal the communication methods and interactions between the local authorities and the evacuees and finally to show the communications systems within groups of evacuees by analysing rumours on pillages of the evacuated region. This approach highlights a history of communication in both French and German war society based on top-down and bottom-up perspectives and on comparative and transnational analyses. Communication in war society appears as the fruit of negotiations and interactions in constant evolution between agents with different interests. This study emphasized the limits of the state’s influence over the population, both in a republican democratic state as the French Third Republic and in a dictatorial state with totalitarian ambitions such as the “Third Reich”.