How many Americans have had to evacuate their homes because of natural disasters?

Jamie BallardData Journalist
September 13, 2018, 3:30 PM GMT+0

People who live in the south are the most likely to have evacuated "several times"

Many Americans who live in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are evacuating their homes this week in preparation for Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm expected to arrive on land Thursday. These evacuees are among the 22% of Americans who have ever had to evacuate their homes due to the threat of a natural disaster, according to new data from YouGov Omnibus.

About one in ten (9%) people say they’ve had to evacuate their home “several times” due to the threat of disaster, while a slightly larger percentage (13%) has only had to evacuate once. People who live in the south are about three times as likely (15%) as people in other regions to say that they’ve had to evacuate “several times.” Meanwhile, the region most likely to say they’ve never evacuated is the midwest.

So far, government officials have ordered more than 1 million residents in North and South Carolina to evacuate. The National Hurricane Center reports that “life-threatening, catastrophic flash-flooding and significant river flooding” and “damaging hurricane winds” are likely once the hurricane hits land on Thursday.

Learn more about YouGov Omnibus.

Image: Getty

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