HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 29, 2022 – With North Carolina expecting severe weather from the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the High Point University Poll released responses from North Carolinians about their concerns if a hurricane were to hit. The HPU Poll asked residents about this in August.

The poll found that a majority (61%) of North Carolinians were either very concerned (21%) or somewhat concerned (40%) that North Carolina would be struck by one or more hurricanes before the end of this year. Smaller percentages of people said they were not very (26%) or not at all (8%) concerned about hurricanes hitting North Carolina this year.

When hurricanes threaten to hit North Carolina, very large majorities of North Carolinians said they buy water (82%), bread (75%), toilet paper (74%) and extra gas for their cars (73%). Smaller majorities of North Carolina residents said they make sure they buy milk (56%) and fruit (51%) before hurricanes hit North Carolina. Smaller proportions of respondents said they buy plywood or other materials to protect their homes (32%) or beer or other alcoholic beverages (28%).

NC residents – Concern about Hurricanes (August 2022)

How concerned are you that North Carolina will be struck by one or more hurricanes before the end of this year?

Very concerned – 21%

Somewhat concerned – 40%

Not very concerned – 26%

Not at all concerned – 8%

Unsure – 6%

(Online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Aug. 18 – Aug. 25, 2022, n = 1002 and credibility interval is +/- 3.2%)

NC residents – Purchases before Hurricanes Strike (August 2022)

Which of these items, if any, do you make sure to buy before hurricanes hit North Carolina? [ITEMS PRESENTED IN A RANDOMIZED ORDER]

The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Aug. 18 through Aug. 25, 2022, as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of NC respondents and the SRC collected responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.1 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.04 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.

The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative. See more information here.

You can follow the HPU Poll Twitter here.

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and associate professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald is the associate director of the HPU Poll.