Tornado
Preparation Survey: Short 10 Question Survey on Tornado Preparation in Your
Town or City.
Taking
this survey could help save lives in your city or town.
Background:
Last
year's hurricane season has heightened everyone's awareness of the role of
government in planning for natural disasters. Though not garnering
national attention, tornadoes kill about 100 Americans every year, and they
have killed more than 4,000 people since 1950. Fatality rates have dropped
in recent decades, but the geographic pattern of tornado-related deaths
suggests that more lives can be saved.
We hope that
by systematically surveying mayors and other municipal officials across the
country, we can map of the patterns of perceived tornado danger, inventory
the various preparation strategies around the country and ultimately help
government officials better protect citizens from natural disasters.
Directions:
The short survey is below. For each question, type your
answer into the corresponding box and when you are ready to move on,
press the "Tab" key to go to the next question. Do not press
the "Enter" key until you are finished with the survey. If you
should accidentally press "Enter" before you have finished, simply click on
your browser's BACK arrow to return to the survey. When you are
finished, press "Enter" or click on the "Submit" button at the bottom of the
survey.
Section 1: Demographic/Background Information
Name (first name first, e.g., John
Smith)
email (optional and strictly
confidential)
title or office (mayor, city council
president, city manager)
Name of the town you represent.
County or Parish
State
Optional
Demographic/Political Information:
Party Affiliation (D, R, I, Other)
Education Level (HS, BA, MA, Ph.D., other)
Age
Sex (M/F)
Section 2:
How great is the tornado threat in your area?
1. Estimate
the number of tornadoes that have touched down in your county since 1950 by
clicking in the box next to the statement you believe to be most accurate:
(select only one)
2.
Estimate the number of tornado injuries suffered by the
people of your county since 1950 by clicking in the box next to the
statement that you believe most accurate: (select only one)
3.
Estimate the number of tornado related deaths suffered
by the people of your county since 1950 by clicking the box next to the
statement you believe most accurate. (select only one)
Section 3:
What are your local tornado preparation strategies?
4.
Does your
town or city have a local or municipally - based tornado warning system in
addition to the federal/state systems?
What
is a "municipally-based" warning system? (click here)
IF YES,
check this box ...then
skip to questions 7, 8, 9 and 10.
IF NO,
check this box and
answer questions 5 and 6 and 10.
Questions 5-6: For cities and towns
without
local warning systems.
5.
In your
opinion, which of the following reasons explains why your town/city
does
not
have a locally based tornado warning system.
In the response box next to
the REASON , type a number from 1 to 5 with:
1=
Agree
Very Strongly;
2 Agree; 3= No Opinion/Neutral; 4= Disagree;
5 =
Disagree Very Strongly
Please indicate any
additional reasons why you think your city or town does not operate a
tornado warning system.
6. We
suspect that cost may prevent some towns and cities from purchasing or
operating a tornado warning system. Please estimate the cost of
constructing a tornado warning system in your town by completing the
sentence below:
" I think
it would cost approximately $
to
build or buy a tornado warning system for my town or city".
(Leave the X in the box if you have no reasonable estimate or have not
considered the cost of a system)
Questions
7-9 are for cities and towns
with
municipally based tornado warning systems.
If your city or town does not have a
municipally based
tornado warning system, please skip to question 10.
7.
In the event of a tornado, how
are people in
your town or city warned of the approaching danger?
Place an X next to all that apply.
a. We have a fixed or mounted siren system (such as air raid
sirens)
b. We have a telephone based call center or a reverse 911
systems
c.
Fire truck
and/or police mobile units signal residents with their siren signals and/or
public address systems
d.
Our local
cable TV company broadcasts "break-in" announcements to
residents
e. Local
government has distributed automated alert devices, such as weather radios
to local citizens
f. Others?
Please briefly describe the nature of your local tornado warning system in
the box below.
8.
For those towns with local tornado warning systems, please
help us understand why your town/city has invested in a system.
Place an X next to all that apply
a. There is a history of dangerous tornadoes in our region
and our need to warn people is high.
b.
Our town/city uses old civil defense warning system.
c.
Threat of law suits or other legal action against the local
government.
d.
Don’t know why the system was built, but we have one
e. Citizens are concerned about tornado threat and demanded
it, though we have little history of dangerous tornadoes.
f. I don't know why our town/city has
a tornado warning system, but we do.
If you can think of any other
reasons why your town or city has a tornado warning system, please
characterize the motivation in the box below:
9.
Could you estimate the age or number of years your local
tornado warning system has been operational?
It was built in:
Question 10: For all towns and cities.
10.
Does your town/city provide community/municipal shelters for
citizens who would seek shelter?
Type
Yes or No:
If you have
any additional thoughts or comments regarding this survey, tornado danger or
disaster preparation that you think would be useful to others, please feel
free to share them in the box below.
Would you like to see our findings?
If you would
like a copy of the data collected from this survey and/or the follow up
report, please leave either an email or a mailing address so that we can
send you the research findings generated by this survey.
Contact Information:
