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In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas and the southeast United States, resulting in widespread damage and loss of life. Drawing from previous crisis communication research on both natural and man-made disasters, this study examines information seeking and medium preferences, attention allocation, and sex differences in these outcomes. Extant literature has found differences between men and women in terms of the volume and types of information wanted during a crisis event, as well as preferences for different media in times of crisis. This literature has yet to examine the degree to which attention allocation may be related to these outcomes. To address these issues in a naturalistic context, a large-scale survey was targeted at residents of states impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Results are consistent with previous research indicating that females engaged in more overall information seeking and sought more information seeking related to tangible goals. Females found interactive media (Internet and social media) to be more useful than males. Evidence was not detected concerning sex differences in the way people found out about the storm and sex differences in attention allocation detected. Results suggested small effects for perceived usefulness of television and Internet on attention allocation for both men and women. Implications for emergency management personnel and public officials are discussed. 

Building on previous crisis and risk literature, this study investigates media dependencies, information seeking, preparation behaviors and rumination tendencies among individuals living on the Atlantic seaboard who were impacted by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Consistent with previous work, participants continue to perceive television, a legacy media, as the most important source of information—both initially and throughout the event. This study also analyzed the extent to which information seeking, preparation behaviors and rumination tendencies may be related, drawing from recent work that has suggested that rumination tendencies may help explain sex differences in information seeking. Results suggested that those with higher rumination tendencies were more likely to perceive all sources of information as very important, with the exception of television, which was heavily relied upon by most participants. Rumination tendencies did not explain the variance in any of the three preparation behaviors examined. Overall, most participants had an emergency kit and an evacuation plan in place, while socioeconomic status positively predicted home preparation.