Replication Data for: Trusting No One, Getting Nowhere: Soft Policy and the Janus-Faced Nature of Social Capital in Evacuation Networks

Why do citizens evacuate, and where do they go? Evacuation is an important aspect of mitigating the costs of climate-change induced disasters to human life, but many cities struggle to achieve high rates of evacuation, especially among vulnerable residents. Using Facebook data aggregated to the neighborhood level, this mixed methods study analyses the movement of Facebook users to and from cities struck by storms and floods. I examine why evacuation varied among cities during Hurricane Dorian, a major hurricane which struck the US southeast in 2019. This study examines the local political drivers of evacuation, including the intersecting roles of evacuation orders, policy tools, bonding, bridging, and linking social capital, and social vulnerability. I combine mobility network analysis and geographic information systems with statistical matching models and case studies of affected communities. This study highlights how linking social capital and “soft” community-oriented preparedness policies boosted evacuation between cities, while bonding social capital was associated with less evacuation. By clarifying the role of community level factors in evacuation, this study aims to open a research agenda for analyzing the politics of human mobility during crisis.