Study to assess how people react to severe weather
Published 2:00 pm Saturday, October 12, 2019
- Residents searching for belongings are dwarfed by the devastation in Beauregard, Ala., Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The twister that smashed Beauregard was the deadliest U.S. tornado in nearly six years. The weather service said it remained on the ground for an hour and 16 minutes, crossing the Chattahoochee River into western Georgia along a path stretching roughly 70 miles (Joe Songer/AL.com. via AP)
TUSCALOOSA (AP) — A new research project getting under way around Tuscaloosa aims to document how people react to severe weather.
The University of Alabama says research sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Severe Storms Laboratory is meant to help improve understanding of what happens in a home when bad weather is threatening.
Students from the university are being hired and trained to observe volunteer households. The households will be assessed before, during and after severe weather events through a combination of telephone contacts and in-home observation.
The head of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety, Laura Myers, says the study aims to document how people get weather alerts and what they do when they get them.
A tornado killed more than 50 people in Tuscaloosa in 2011.
