Health and safety professionals and the public are interested in the best methods of providing timely information about disasters. The objective of this study was to examine information sources used for Superstorm Sandy with respect to the storm, evacuation routes, shelters, safety, and health issues. Respondents in central New Jersey and Jersey shore communities were differentially impacted by the storm. Jersey shore respondents had higher evacuation rates (47% vs. 13%), higher flood waters in homes, longer power outages (average 23 vs. 6 d), and longer periods without Internet (29 vs. 6 d). Electricity outages disrupted both sources and receivers of communication. Both groups obtained most of their information regarding safety from television, radio, friends, and Web/e-mail. Information sources on health varied by location, with central Jersey respondents using mainly TV and the Web, and Jersey shore respondents obtaining health information from the radio and TV (before the storm). For information on evacuation routes, Jersey shore respondents obtained information from many sources, while central Jersey respondents obtained it from TV. Information on mold was largely obtained from friends and the Web, since mold issues were dealt with several weeks after Sandy. The reliance on traditional sources of information (TV, radio, friends) found in this study suggests that the extreme power outages rendered Web, cell phones, and social media on cell phones less usable, and suggests the need for an integrated communication strategy with redundancies that takes into account prolonged power outages over large geographical areas.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 January 2014.
All research outputs
#24,048,594
of 29,290,702 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A
#2,279
of 2,529 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#181,071
of 233,468 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A
#6
of 7 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 29,290,702 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 9th percentile – i.e., 9% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,529 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.6. This one is in the 5th percentile – i.e., 5% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 233,468 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 10th percentile – i.e., 10% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 7 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one.
