The Logistics of Evacuating and Sheltering Medically Fragile Populations Under Pandemics

This article examines the logistics of evacuation and sheltering of medically fragile populations, who tend to have less capacity to safely manage rapidly shifting storm-induced conditions under a pandemic environment. Health awareness and the health and financial impacts of the pandemic have altered households’ evacuation and sheltering calculus. The timing and volume of evacuees have significant implications for configuring available transportation infrastructures and means and opening shelters and refuge of last resort as the storm materializes and degrades the built environment. This article asks five questions about the effect of medical fragility, health risk awareness, health and financial impacts of the pandemic, and the availability of noncongregate shelters on evacuation and sheltering behavior. The empirical analysis uses data from a survey of 2200 households conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to gauge risk perceptions under the compound threat of a hurricane and pandemic. Takeaways from our findings have significant implications for managers and policymakers and indicate, first, that medically fragile households are more likely to evacuate than nonmedically fragile households. Second, households with health concerns about the pandemic are more likely to evacuate regardless of medical fragility. Third, the expected sheltering of these segments varies depending on the facilities provided by the authorities. Anticipating the behavior of population groups allows managers to deploy technology that supports effective resource configuration and coordination and provides effective emergency service during evacuation planning and execution.