Young, Mobile, but Alone in the Cold and Dark: Experiences of Young Urban In-Migrants during Extreme Weather Events in the UK

While previous research examining the human responses to environmental hazards has highlighted the increased risk of harm faced by elderly people during extreme weather events and other natural disasters, much less is known about the responses of young adults aged between 18 and 30. In addition, there remains an absence of the accounts of in-migrant populations, especially young in-migrants. This study aims to address these existing shortcomings by presenting the findings from a study focusing on the responses of young adult in-migrants aged between 18 and 30 to prolonged power outages resulting from extreme weather events that affected the UK between 2011 and 2014. The evidence presented reveals the ways in young adult in-migrants can be regarded to be vulnerable during extreme weather events, as well as highlighting how their experiences differ to older in-migrants and other young adults living in the same geographic areas. The findings suggest that the increased vulnerability to the impacts of severe weather found amongst young in-migrants results from a combination social factors and processes that influence the responses of young in-migrants. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for the scholarship, policy and practice of Disaster Risk Reduction.