Intentions of university students and staff members to re-enter chemical storage buildings immediately after a major earthquake: A case study in Japan

This questionnaire-based study primarily intended to explore unsafe post-evacuation behaviors of university students and staff members in Japan immediately after the occurrence of a major earthquake. The intentions of evacuees to re-enter vacated buildings under simultaneous independent conditions (e.g., cold and rainy weather) were investigated along with features that attracted their selective attention to establish effective emergency plans for universities/colleges where hazardous materials are handled and stored. A questionnaire survey was administered to 265 people at a national university in Japan. The question items queried risk perception, intentions to return to vacated buildings, knowledge of hazardous materials, and demographics. The survey results indicated that several combined situations significantly increased the respondents? intentions to reenter evacuated buildings: cold and rainy weather, personal belongings left in a building that was severely damaged, and persons with disabilities left behind in a severely damaged building. A co-occurrence network analysis performed along with correspondence analyses revealed that people who were aware of chemical hazards paid greater attention to gas release and fire events. Conversely, those who were not as knowledgeable merely directed their selective attention to items easily conceived in the event of seismic occurrences (e.g., footing, broken window, helmet, etc.). Correlation analysis demonstrated that (i) the knowledge of hazardous materials was not significantly correlated with intentions to reenter, and (ii) a negative relationship existed between risk perception variables and intentions.

Automated summary

This questionnaire-based study aimed to investigate the unsafe post-evacuation behaviors of university students and staff members in Japan after a major earthquake, revealing that factors such as cold and rainy weather, the presence of persons with disabilities, and personal belongings left in severely damaged buildings significantly increased their intentions to reenter. The study also found that knowledge of hazardous materials did not correlate significantly with intentions to reenter, and there was a negative relationship between risk perception and intentions.