El Nino and perceptions of the southern California floods and mudslides of 1998.

Includes bibliographical references

In early March, 1998, the Center for Hazards Research at California State University, Chico, activated a Quick Response grant. This enabled it to send a five-person team to the Los Angeles area to investigate the effects of El Nino-attributed storms there in late February and to inverview FEMA and California OES personnel. In Los Angeles and in Chico, telephone surveys were conducted to elicit residents' mental maps of the most damaged areas. A literature content analysis was later conducted of front-page storm coverage in the Los Angeles Times. The surveys revealed a very heavy concentration of perceived damage in the upscale Malibu and Laguna Beach communities, a concentration quite out of line with Times coverage. Times coverage was broader spatially, both within the region and throughout the state. Most respondents felt that this rough winter was part of the "normal" extremity of the local weather patterns and cycles, rather than a one-event oddity or part of a trend to worsening climate conditions. When queried about their mitigation behaviors, the great majority of respondents stated they did maintain an emergency kit. The majority of homeowners, however, did not maintain flood insurance protection. The field study could not resolve whether there were systematic social biases in respondents' mental maps nor whether any such biases derived from media representation