Natural Disasters and Risk Communication

Implications of the Cascadia Subduction Zone Megaquake

By (author) C. Vail Fletcher, Jennette Lovejoy Contributions by Bradley Adame, Robert F. Butler, Ashleigh Day, Yianni Doulis, C. Vail Fletcher, Chris Goldfinger, Julie Homchick Crowe, Do Kyun Kim, Kai Kuang, Jennette Lovejoy, Phillip Madison University of Louisiana a, Hiroaki Matsuura, Claude Miller, Julie M. Novak, Keiichi Sato, kathryn schulz

Publication date:

23 May 2018

Length of book:

278 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

229x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498556118

Natural Disasters and Risk Communication: Implications of the Cascadia Subduction Zone Megaquake asks and addresses how we communicate about natural disasters and what effect our communication has on natural disaster education, understanding, assessment of risk, preparation, and recovery. The chapters of this book present expertise, analyses, and perspectives that are designed to help us better comprehend and deal with the natural risks such as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. It seeks to move past primal, fear-induced physiological and emotional responses to crises with the understanding that if we accept that the disaster will occur, expect it, and learn how we can prepare, we can calm the collective panicked beats of our hearts as we wait for its first tremors.

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Kathryn Schulz
1. Introduction
Conceptualizing Risk: Media Coverage and Natural Disasters
Jennette Lovejoy

Part 1: Cascadia Subduction Zone: Geological Background and Predicting Preparedness in the Pacific Northwest

2. Cascadia Earthquake Science and Hazards
Robert F. Butler
3. Risk Perception and Earthquake Preparedness Motivation: Predicting Responses to a Cascadia Subduction Zone Catastrophic Event
Bradley Adame and Claude Miller

Part 2: Confronting Risk Information: Rhetorical Framing in the Media and Stages of Crisis

4. The article that shook the public: A comparative study of “The Really Big One” and other earthquake news coverage
Julie Homchick Crowe
5. A “Fast and Frugal” Approach to Risk Judgment and Decision-Making and its Implications for Natural Disaster
Kai Kuang

Part 3: Local and Global Case Studies: Analyzing Demographic, Attitude and Economic Factors in Natural Disasters

6. Public risk perception attitudes on flooding by different societal sectors: An investigation based on the August 2016 flood in Louisiana
Do Kyun Kim and Phillip Madison
7. Economic Evaluation of Multi-Hazard Risk Information in Japan: Implication for Earthquake Risk Communication
Hiroaki Matsuura and Keiichi Sato

Part 4: Community, Organizing, and Resilience: Pragmatic Considerations

8. Families, Companion Animals, and the CSZ Disaster: Implications for Crisis and Risk Communication
Julie M. Novak and Ashleigh Day
9. What is to be Done?—A Preparedness Polemic
Yianni Doulis
10. Nature, Fear, and Bewilderment: An Anthropcenic (Dis)Connect
C. Vail Fletcher

Epilogue
Chris Goldfinger

Index
About the Contributors

Fletcher and Lovejoy's Natural Disasters and Risk Communication: Implications of the Cascadia Subduction Zone Megaquake is a must-read for anyone interested in risk communication and how societies respond to natural disasters. The book focuses on moving readers beyond traditional responses such as panic or apathy and toward more productive ones such as preparedness and resilience in the face of inevitable crises. Natural disasters associated with climate change make this book especially timely and necessary. I highly recommend it.