Relationship Between Disaster Prevention Weather Information and Residents’ Awareness: A Case Study of the 2014 Hiroshima Heavy Rain Disaster

Abstract

This survey report investigates the gap between disaster prevention weather information and residents’ evacuation behavior during the August 2014 Hiroshima Heavy Rain Disaster. Although meteorological forecasting technology has improved, it does not always lead to effective resident action. To understand this discrepancy, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five residents in the affected Asaminami Ward and analyzed 88 narratives from published experience records. We mapped residents’ subjective “moments of anxiety” and “evacuation decisions” against objective meteorological data (precipitation and warnings). The survey results reveal that residents’ sense of crisis often lagged significantly behind the issuance of warnings and was instead triggered by direct sensory perceptions of danger (e.g., sounds of rain and debris flow). This report provides qualitative data highlighting the specific cognitive barriers to using weather information in rapid-onset disasters.

Comparison of residents' awareness phases and meteorological data timeline