At the request of the Demographic Surveys Division, staff from the Center for Survey Measurement cognitively pretested the 2013 American Housing Survey Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Module.

Results of 6 cognitive interviews conducted in September 2012 found that: 1) some respondents thought preparing a disaster plan with vital financial information and contact numbers was outdated in the world of cellular technology; 2) it was not possible to differentiate between respondents who did not need assistance in evacuating and sheltering their pets and those who did not have any pets; 3) respondents in apartment buildings answered inconsistently about having a generator if the apartment building had one but they themselves did not; and 4) the sequence of questions was viewed by some respondents as skipping around across housing characteristics, planning details and evacuation. A complete enumeration of findings as well as recommendations to address the problems is included in the attached report.