Tornado/COVID-19 Risk Perception and Intended Behavior Survey

The COVID-19 pandemic grew rapidly in many portions of the United States during March and April of 2020, coinciding with the seasonal increased risk of tornadoes in the central and eastern United States. This created a situation in which some recommended protective behaviors for tornadoes were in conflict with recommended COVID-19 protective actions. This was particularly challenging for any household who planned to seek shelter from tornado threats at a location other than home, such as a public shelter or a home of a family member or friend. Our research goal—given the ongoing pandemic—was to understand risk perception and intended sheltering behaviors among residents of tornado-prone states and analyze whether these views changed from the spring to the late summer of 2020. We collected approximately 3000 surveys in late May and then again in late July and early August across more than twenty states. We intentionally oversampled households living in mobile or manufactured homes to capture the perceptions of people living in more vulnerable housing units. In this research, we present several findings including changes in COVID-19 and tornado risk perception and sheltering intentions from May to August, and influences on perception and intended behaviors related to different housing types, NWS regions, urban and rural settings, political affiliations, and household demographics.