Introduction: On a stormy September evening in 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived in New York City, resulting in record rainfall, widespread flooding, and 13 deaths. Eleven of those deaths occurred in basement-level homes of residents of Asian descent in low-income Asian immigrant communities. As a result of this experience, members of an Asian immigrant community organization requested disaster preparedness education for their members. Methods: The Household Emergency Preparedness Instrument (HEPI) was translated into Korean, field-tested, and pilot tested. The K-HEPI was then used in a controlled before-and-after study to measure the preparedness level of an at-risk population before and after receiving a group-based educational intervention. The experimental group received two classes covering evacuation planning, community resources, and disaster kits. The experimental group’s K-HEPI scores were compared to the control group’s scores at baseline and at one-month follow-up. Results: The K-HEPI generated the intended factor structure, providing evidence for construct validity of the translated instrument. Participants in the experimental arm (n = 200) realized greater pre-post gains in disaster preparedness compared to those in the control arm (n = 199) (Preparedness Actions and Planning Subscale β=1.29, SE=0.103, p < 0.001; Disaster Supplies & Resources Subscale β=1.07, SE=0.110, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The community organization continues to offer the disaster preparedness intervention to its members, demonstrating the program’s sustainability. The K-HEPI should be used to assess disaster preparedness among Korean-speaking populations and to evaluate the effectiveness of preparedness interventions. Further testing of the K-HEPI and the intervention in longitudinal studies is recommended to explore potential associations between disaster preparedness and outcomes such as survival without rescue, prevention of injury, or acute exacerbations of chronic illnesses. Replicating the intervention across different immigrant populations is essential, and data from these studies can inform policy development to better address the needs of immigrant communities before, during, and after disasters.
Heagele et al. (Sun,) studied this question.