Residents on Connecticut's coast continue to underestimate the economic and physical dangers posed by severe weather, according to a new survey out of Yale.
Destructive storms like Hurricane Irene and Sandy inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to Connecticut's coastline. But a new study of more than 1,100 houses along the state's coast says its residents still don't understand the dangers of these storms.
About half of those surveyed didn't think the damage from storms like Sandy and Irene would be as bad as it was. It also found nearly three quarters of coastal residents had never seen an evacuation map and that only about one-third of them had evacuated to avoid a storm since the beginning of 2009.
The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, which conducted the research, said the findings will be important for emergency officials who are still struggling to effectively communicate the risks posed by high-powered tropical storms and hurricanes.
Meanwhile, the U.S. National Climate Assessment says the risk of coastal flooding in Connecticut continues to grow.
