THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA: Floridians more prepared for storms than coastal peers, poll shows
Jun 4, 2009
Floridians might not be as oblivious to hurricane safety as their coastal neighbors after all, a poll unveiled Wednesday indicates.
Following the release last week of a Mason Dixon Polling & Research poll showing most coastal U.S. residents are seriously ill-prepared for hurricane season, the Florida Division of Emergency Management released its own Mason Dixon survey that shows Floridians are generally more informed and well prepared.
Nearly three-fourths of Florida residents have a disaster plan compared to about half among U.S. coastal residents. Floridians are also more than twice as likely to have a stockpile of hurricane supplies.
Still, most Floridians don’t know where they would evacuate to if they needed to flee their homes in response to a natural or man-made disaster.
The state’s economy is playing a factor, with 27 percent of respondents saying evacuation costs would play a factor in their decision to leave, up from 19 percent in a survey completed after the 2008 hurricane season.
The Florida results, released two days after the official beginning of the 2009 hurricane season, come on the heels of a regional poll that last week found most Atlantic and Gulf Coast residents “grossly unprepared.”