Hurricane Mitigation Status and Factors Influencing Mitigation Status among Florida’s Single-Family Homeowners

Abstract

This paper presents statewide estimates of shutter usage and envelope coverage for owner-occupied single-family detached housing in Florida. Intrastate regional variations are also presented and discussed. Multivariate analyses of shutter and envelope coverage assessing the relative influence of a variety of factors considered by the literature to be determinants of household mitigation are presented. The findings suggest that perceptions of hurricane risk and knowledge, past hurricane experience, proportion of neighbors with shutters, residing in coastal counties and counties subscribing to the South Florida Building Code, household income, and race/ethnicity are all significant determinants of shutter usage and envelope coverage. Policy implications are discussed.