Threat Intensity and the Public Use of Warning Information: A Quasi-experimental Assessment of Tornado Warnings

Government organizations work using a variety of tools. While most of the attention in the academic literature is on regulatory activity and the direct provision of services, the government also provides information on a... [ view full abstract ]

Government organizations work using a variety of tools. While most of the attention in the academic literature is on regulatory activity and the direct provision of services, the government also provides information on a variety of subjects. On some subjects, the government is a key and irreplaceable provider of essential information. The government, for example, is a primary provider of information on a variety of product safety issues. It is important for scholarship to explore the information provision role of government in parallel to continuing development of research on other tools such as regulation and service provision.

This manuscript assesses the dynamics of information released by the National Weather Service as part of a series of dangerous storms in Oklahoma in 2016. Of particular interest is how members of the public receive information and pass information along to others. This manuscript assess the methods through which people received information (via in-person conversation, text message, Facebook, etc.) as well as the effect of particular disaster experiences on the propensity of people to use various means to receive (and send) information. The results indicate that perceived tornado experiences motivate the use of a variety of technologies - with the strongest effects coming to newer technologies like text messaging a Facebook.