An analysis of the public response to the east central florida tornado outbreak of 22–23, february 1998

The 22-23 February 1998 tornado outbreak in east central Florida was the deadliest tornado outbreak in Florida history. Forty-two people were killed and 265 were injured as the tornadoes produced devastating damage, especially throughout recreation vehicle, trailer and mobile home parks during the early morning hours of 23 February. Over 3,000 structures were damaged, with more than 700 destroyed. Seven tornadoes occurred during the time period of 0400 UTC 23 February to 0730 UTC 23 February. Three of the tornadoes reached the F-3 intensity on the Fujita scale.

This paper will first compare the public response to the tornado outbreak in Volusia and Osceola counties to ascertain whether severe weather awareness and actions taken by the public in Volusia county were different than in Osceola county. This research will also compare the responses of residents living in mobile homes to that of people living in other housing, primarily site-built single family structures and the respondents level of severe weather education. Further interviews with respondents in the path of the tornadoes will show that the timing of the tornado occurrences led to the lack of warning information received. The majority of the 400 respondents further stated in the interviews that they received the warning information primarily via their local television stations. Only one percent of the people in the damage path had a NOAA weather radio and received the tornado warnings by that means. Almost 90 percent of the respondents interviewed relied upon local television, however 25 percent of the persons interviewed after the tornado outbreak did not watch television or listen to the radio that night. Three-fourths of the respondents said they learned about the availability of NOAA Weather Radio for the first time after the tornado outbreak. Thirteen percent of the respondents later interviewed claimed to have purchased a NOAA Weather Radio with the tone alert feature. People who said they heard a "tornado warning" after 0300 UTC 23 January on the evening of the event were more than three times as likely to take protective action as people who said they didn't hear warnings. Those who said they heard that tornadoes had been "detected" were five times as likely to take protective action.

Results gained from this tornado outbreak have led to an agressive National Weather Service and State of Florida public severe weather education effort in east central Florida. Ten important severe weather safety precautions when a tornado watch is issued were specifically written as a result of the tornado outbreak and were added to hazardous weather pamphlets developed specifically for east central Florida by WFO Melbourne. Ten further safety precautions were derived for tornado warning situations as a result of the tornado outbreak findings. These safety precautions specifically address personal safety regarding driving, taking pictures or videos of a tornado and specific safe locations to move to when a tornado is imminent.