Making Sense of Hurricanes: Public Discourse and Perceived Risk of Extreme Weather

Abstract

Our case study of hurricane risk and emergency communication in a high-risk county on the US southeastern coast shows residents actively processing information available in public discourse about hazardous storms.  To construct meaningful assessments of personal risk, local people interpret and evaluate alternate representations of storm events produced by government emergency managers, local and national news media, and commonsense local lore.  Using combined methods, we analyze empirical evidence of narratives communicated by residents and by journalists.  As contribution to study of risk perception, this article describes mechanisms of interpretation and evaluation by which people perceive weather-related danger and make judgments about it.