Tennessee residents affected by 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire asked to participate in survey

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is asking Sevier County, Tenn., residents who were affected by the November 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire to participate in a survey.

The goal of the survey is to identify the factors that influenced people to evacuate and help researchers understand the public’s experiences with emergency alerts and warnings issued during the fire.

“Studying how our emergency communications systems performed and how residents responded is extremely important,” Erica Kuligowski, a NIST research social scientist, said. “Through this type of research, we have been able to develop guidance for those who issue emergency messages on how to create and disseminate evacuation warnings that meet the needs of people threatened by a disaster.”

Results of the survey could result in improvements to training and education, technology, emergency messages, and other emergency procedures. It also could lead to developing evacuation models that can be used for wildfire planning.

NIST previously studied other natural disasters to developing better ways of protecting communities from the devastating effects of natural disasters including the 2012 Waldo Canyon wildfire, the 2011 Joplin, Missouri, tornado, the 2010 earthquake in Chile, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Matthew.

The survey is being conducted by research firm Fors Marsh Group.