• Introduction
• Insurance Claims and Losses
• New Hanover County/Wilmington

Public Attitudes and Preparedness Study

Introduction

Hurricane Fran delivered a particularly hard blow to New Hanover County, North Carolina.  The center of the Hurricane passed up the Cape Fear River along New Hanover's southwest boundary.  Storm surges from the hurricane were as high as 12 feet. Most docks and piers were destroyed.  County infrastructure suffered $5 million in damage, while schools in the county suffered $2 million in damage. Pleasure Island, including Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Ft. Fisher, was hardest hit. Twenty-five homes on Pleasure Island were carried off of their foundations and many others were damaged.  In Wilmington, 14 homes were destroyed and 385 homes suffered major damage.  Evacuation shelters in the county held 880 people.  Overall, estimated damage to property was $200 million and estimated damage to crops was $1 million.

Insurance Claims and Losses

Private insurers maintain claim data from their clients. Private claims typically represent damages caused by forces other than flooding, such as wind or rainfall. The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) collects data from several private insurers and stores it by zip code. IBHS estimated paid insured losses from Hurricane Fran in North Carolina at $1.42 billion. Figure 1.37 shows the damages paid from Hurricane Fran in New Hanover County. Notice how paid losses increase as you move up the coast. Much like the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) information, these data can assist emergency planners in targeting mitigation efforts to areas that would receive the greatest benefit. 

Figure 1.37. IBHS estimated paid insurance losses

NFIP, housed within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provides affordable flood insurance to residents in areas that adopt regulations to mitigate for floods.  In New Hanover County, there are approximately 6,000 NFIP policyholders.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Fran, 3,528 (59 percent) people filed NFIP claims in New Hanover County. Of the 3,528 claims, 411 (12 percent) policyholders suffered substantial losses of over 50 percent of their residences.

New Hanover County/Wilmington Project Impact Public Attitudes and Preparedness Study

The New Hanover County/Wilmington Project Impact Public Attitudes and Preparedness Study is an examination of local residents’ preparation for, attitudes toward, and experience with hurricanes. The study was conducted by the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) and directed by Dr. Stephen Meinhold and Dr. Lloyd Jones. It was conducted between July 7 and August 4, 1998 and includes telephone interviews with 1,200 randomly selected residents of New Hanover County. The survey has a margin of error of +- 3 percent. Financial support for the project was provided by the New Hanover County Department of Emergency Management, UNCW College of Arts and Sciences, and UNCW Survey Research Laboratory. This report summarizes the key findings from the survey in each of the three study areas: hurricane preparedness, attitudes, and experience.

The data displayed in this section reflect the experiences of New Hanover County residents with Hurricane Fran. It is a subset of information collected as part of the New Hanover County/Wilmington Project Impact Public Attitudes and Preparedness Study. A study examining local residents’ preparation for, attitudes toward, and experience with hurricanes was conducted by the Survey Research Laboratory at the UNCW and directed by Drs. Stephen Meinhold and Lloyd Jones.  Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,200 randomly selected households in New Hanover County between July 7 and August 4, 1998.  The survey has a margin of error of +- 3 percent. The New Hanover County Department of Emergency Management, UNCW College of Arts and Sciences, and UNCW Survey Research Laboratory provided financial support for the project. 

These data reflect the experiences of 654 New Hanover County residents who answered questions about Hurricane Fran.  They are provided for illustrative purposes only and should be interpreted with care.  The project did not include sufficient households from each census tract to make valid inferences to all of the residents of that area.  Thus, generalizations about the behavior of entire census tracts based on the information displayed here should be avoided.   The table below contains links to maps illustrating several survey questions related to Hurricane Fran.

Maps provide an effective way to visualize geographic information.  By visualizing responses from this behavioral study, emergency managers and planners can start to see patterns and trends that would otherwise remain hidden.  These patterns can assist emergency managers in planning for and ultimately mitigating the effects of  hurricanes. For example, when evacuation responses are presented on a map, one can see the areas where a low percentage of evacuation had occurred.  These areas of low evacuation can be targeted with information that could persuade residents to evacuate in the future. 

For the executive summary of the New Hanover County/Wilmington Project Impact Public Attitudes and Preparedness Study go to http://www.uncwil.edu/pls/srl/.