If the hundreds of e-mails that we received before and after Hurricane Irene?s arrival on Hatteras and Ocracoke on Aug. 27 are any indication, all of our readers have an opinion on the preparation for and response to the storm.
That includes residents who stayed, residents who evacuated, non-resident property owners, and visitors to the islands.
Now, we are giving you an opportunity to tell us what you think about your experiences during and after the storm and how well local, state, and federal agencies and other organizations helped you prepare or recover.
Today, we are introducing An Island Free Press Reader Survey: Hurricane Irene Response.
Island Free Press has developed this survey for its readers as a means to capture ideas and opinions directly from our island’s stakeholders — residents, non-resident property owners, and visitors.
It is our hope that the results will be used by the various government agencies and other organizations to improve our overall ability to prepare for, deal with, and recover from future emergencies.
We have attempted to differentiate the responses as much as possible by groups, including residents who stayed and residents who evacuated, non-resident property owners, and visitors.
Those groups will be asked questions specific to them, such as which village they live in or own property in, whether they own or rent, how much it cost them to evacuate, how they got news during and after the storm, if they had a vacation planned during or after the storm, and how they rate the various local, state, and federal agencies and other organizations, such as Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative, which were involved in preparation and recovery.
All of this will allow us to interpret the answers in a meaningful way and draw some valid conclusions.
Following Hurricane Irene, village meetings were held by various organizations to assess the needs and opinions of its citizens, but the views of many residents could not be heard because they had evacuated before the storm and had not been allowed to return or they were non-resident property owners who were not yet allowed access to the islands.
And it?s also important to us that we get the input of our visitors — the island?s economic engine ? especially those who had vacations planned during and after the hurricane.
Your response to our survey will be tabulated and made available online for you to view and study and, I?m sure, will lead to many ideas for articles.
But, more importantly, we will share the responses with the various governmental and non-governmental organizations, agencies, and departments involved in storm preparation and recovery.
We hope this will provide them with valuable information about dealing with future emergencies in our communities.
The Island Free Press is grateful to Hatteras Designs, Inc., the company that developed our website, for making this survey possible. Owners Jim Boyd and Buddy Swain proposed the idea of the survey to us, developed the questions with our input, and set it up with the required software that will allow us to do all kinds of nifty things in sorting and tallying the responses.
They have donated their work to us because they think ? and we agree ? that this is a service to our community.
The survey is easy and painless to complete. Unless you really have a lot to say, you can finish it in 10 minutes. But take as much time as you need.
And we hope each and every one of our readers will take the time to do it.
Let your voices be heard.
CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE SURVEY
