High-resolution human mobility data reveal race and wealth disparities in disaster evacuation patterns

Abstract Major disasters such as extreme weather events can magnify and exacerbate pre-existing social disparities, with disadvantaged populations bearing disproportionate costs. Despite the implications for equity emergency planning, we lack a quantitative understanding of how these fault lines translate to different behaviours in large-scale contexts. Here investigate this problem context Hurricane Harvey, using over 30 million anonymized GPS records from 150,000 opted-in users Greater Houston Area quantify patterns disaster-inflicted relocation activities before, during, after shock. We show that evacuation distance is highly homogenous across individuals types neighbourhoods classified by race wealth, obeying truncated power-law distribution. Yet here similarities end: find both wealth strongly impact patterns, minority less likely evacuate than wealthier white residents. Finally, there are considerable discrepancies terms departure return times strong cohesion among evacuees advantaged their destination choices. These empirical findings bring new insights into mobility evacuations, providing policy recommendations residents, decision-makers, disaster managers alike.