Emotional and behavioural responses to the 19 September 2017 earthquake: the case of the occupants of three multi-storey buildings

Emotional and behavioural responses to the 19 September 2017 earthquake: the case of the occupants of three multi-storey buildings Jaime Santos-Reyes, Tatiana Gouzeva Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- Studies on human behaviour during a seismic emergency in tall buildings are scant. During such emergencies, occupants need to reach a safe place. The purpose of this paper is to address some of the emotional and behavioural responses of the occupants of three multi-storey buildings during the 19 September earthquake that hit Mexico City in 2017. A cross-sectional and non-probability study was conducted using a questionnaire-based survey; the sample size was n = 352, and the study was conducted from 4 October to 20 November 2017. (1) In the 11 storey-building, women, age (18–49 years old [yo]) and participants with higher education exhibited flight behaviour, and those of the six storey-building within the age category 18–49 yo also exhibited a similar behaviour; (2) Women and age (18–49 yo) in the six and 11-storey buildings were significantly associated with fear of the earthquake; (3) Women were significantly more fearful and felt more intense the tremors than men in the 11-storey building; (4) Women were significantly more fearful of the 11-storey building collapsing; (5) The taller the building, the more fearful were the occupants of the building collapsing. First, the sample c...
Source: Disaster Prevention and Management - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research