Barriers to Evacuating: A Study on Administrative Burdens to Special Needs Shelters
研究特殊需求避难所撤离中的行政负担，发现心理成本最常见且在高脆弱性县更突出，为管理者提供减负建议。
Emergencies, such as extreme weather events, require residents to evacuate for their safety. Past research suggests that administrative burdens—compliance, learning, and psychological costs—can impact the likelihood of evacuations to shelters. These burdens disproportionately impact socially vulnerable populations and create social equity issues. Florida operates special needs shelters to provide safe environments and basic assistance to individuals needing higher levels of care and supervision and ensure that special medical needs are met during an evacuation. Using data from 23 county after-action reports from Hurricane Irma, this article examines administrative burdens faced by individuals evacuating to special needs shelters. Although residents faced all three types of administrative burdens, psychological costs were most common, especially among counties with high social vulnerability. Based on the results, recommendations are provided for public administrators and emergency managers to reduce these administrative burdens when evacuating to special needs shelters during future emergencies.