In this paper, we present and explain a behavior model to capture the mobilization time for an evacuee by developing a
random-parameter ordered probit model using data from Hurricane Ivan. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt
to incorporate random parameters to model evacuees’ strategic behavior in terms of mobilization time. Six variables
have random parameters which reflect the heterogeneous influences of the associated variables on the elapsed time. These
variables include source and time of evacuation notice received, work constraint, previous hurricane experience, race, and
income. The random parameters (all found to be normally distributed) suggest that their effect varies across the observations
and the random parameter model shows better fit than its fixed parameters counterpart.
Different influential factors, such as, household’s geographic location, socio-economic factors, evacuation related characteristics,
trip time during normal condition, and previous experience are statistically significant and affect the mobilization
time during hurricane. The findings from this study provide some key insights regarding hurricane evacuation behavior. Such
insights include: