NEWS

CHAPEL HILL – Seventy-one percent of all full- and part-time working North Carolinians responding to a new survey about December’s ice storm reported missing work -- typically at least one full day.

Most of those respondents could not work because their offices were closed, survey results showed. Nineteen percent said they could not physically get to work. And half of those responding said downed trees or electrical wires blocked roads in their neighborhoods.

Those results are among new analysis coming from a survey conducted by researchers at the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and RTI International. Investigators telephoned 457 households in the 36 counties included in North Carolina's application for federal disaster relief to assess the impact of the ice storm.

"There is only so much information that can be collected by utility companies and local governments," said Dr. Kenneth Bollen, director of the Odum Institute. "This survey was designed to collect neglected, but important information on households in the affected counties."

Most of the surveyed households lost power (78 percent) as well as heat (58 percent), while 28 percent were without either telephone service (28 percent) or water (19 percent). Researchers said the loss of utility service represented only part of the total storm impact.

"The results of the survey quantify what we have been hearing in anecdotal reports in the news media and elsewhere," said Paul Biemer, who holds joint posts at RTI and the UNC institute, where he directs survey research. "We hope the results help state and local officials, business leaders and others have an even fuller understanding of the storm’s impact on North Carolina."

More than a quarter of the responding households – 28 percent -- reported spending nights away from home; the median stay was three nights, researchers said. Fourteen percent of the respondents said their homes were damaged with a $400 median estimate for repair costs. Only 2 percent of the respondents reported any storm-related injuries. About 50 percent of households without power reported spoiled food. The median estimate of the value of the lost food was $100.

Researchers also asked survey respondents what they would do to reduce damage from a future storm. Eighty percent said they were supportive of proposals to trim back trees further from power lines. Less than half – 47 percent -- were willing to pay extra on their monthly bill to bury power lines in their communities. About 24 percent of those asked said they pay $1 to $5; 12 percent would pay $6 to $10 and 11 percent would pay more than $10 monthly.

Survey respondents were randomly selected from households in the 36 counties affected by the ice storm, reaching as far west as McDowell and Rutherford counties and as far east as Halifax and Edgecombe counties. Most were clustered along the Interstate 85 corridor. The Odum Institute-RTI survey was conducted between Dec. 21-29. The margin of error is 4.7 percentage points.

UNC's Odum Institute, founded in 1924, maintains one of the nation's largest archives of polling and census data and supports social science research at Carolina through statistical and survey consulting, short courses and colloquia, and a state-of-the-art computing lab.

RTI International, an independent, nonprofit organization, is dedicated to conducting research that improves the human condition. With a staff of more than 2,050 people, RTI offers innovative research and development and a full spectrum of multidisciplinary services in health and pharmaceuticals, advanced technology, survey and statistics, education and training, social and economic development, and environment.

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Web Links: Odum Institute, http://www.odum.unc.edu. RTI International, http://www.rti.org

Note: Bollen can be reached at (919) 843-5990 or bollen@email.unc.edu. Biemer can be reached at (919) 843-2200 or biemer@email.unc.edu

News Services contacts: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu, and Karen Moon (broadcast), (919) 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu.