ORIGINAL PAPER Evacuation behaviour of households and drivers during a tornado Analysis based on a stated preference survey in Calgary, Canada Samanthi W. Durage • Lina Kattan • S. C. Wirasinghe • Janaka Y. Ruwanpura Received: 18 September 2013 / Accepted: 13 November 2013 / Published online: 28 November 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract With increasing concerns over the possibility of tornadoes in highly populated areas in Canada, emergency managers are looking into ways to mitigate the impacts of tornadoes. Given that tornadoes can cause enormous destruction, early warnings and proper evacuation actions are critically important in helping save lives. In this paper, a survey was conducted to analyse the evacuation behaviour of households and drivers during a hypothetical tornado warning situation in the city of Calgary, Alberta. Nearly 500 Calgarians took part in the online survey and provided information on how they would respond to tornado warnings after receiving them. This paper presents the results of the survey. Using probit models, the factors inﬂuencing these evacuation decisions are iden- tiﬁed and discussed in detail. The results of the household evacuation model show the importance of improving awareness about the safest locations during a tornado. It further highlights the need for targeting the population under the age of 30, who are more likely to take unsafe evacuation actions. The model for evacuation of drivers shows that several factors, such as knowing the difference between a watch and a warning, awareness of safe cover, receipt of warnings through natural environmental cues and the level of education, trigger evacuation actions in avoiding a tornado threat. Keywords Tornado warning  Calgary  Household and driver evacuation behaviour  Probit S. W. Durage (&)  L. Kattan  S. C. Wirasinghe  J. Y. Ruwanpura Department of Civil Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada e-mail: swalawed@ucalgary.ca L. Kattan e-mail: lkattan@ucalgary.ca S. C. Wirasinghe e-mail: wirasing@ucalgary.ca J. Y. Ruwanpura e-mail: janaka@ucalgary.ca 123 Nat Hazards (2014) 71:1495–1517 DOI 10.1007/s11069-013-0958-6