Nurture Nature Center Gets $160,000 Grant

How do weather forecasts cause people to respond to flooding?

That's a question Easton's hopes to answer over the next two years.

The NNC has gotten a $160,000 grant from the National Weather Service to fund a new social science study on weather decision making.

"Given the frequency and intensity of flooding not only in this region, but across the country, improving how people prepare for flooding is critical to reducing losses," NNC director Rachel Hogan-Carr said in a news release. 

For the project, NNC will work with National Weather Service forecast offices, as well as Dr. Burrell Montz, a researcher from East Carolina University with expertise in flooding and natural hazards.

The NNC will create a series of focus groups made up of residents of Easton and Lambertville, two communities with a .

The center said it wants to use the focus groups to "understand messages about uncertainty in forecasts, as well as how the timing, specificity, wording and graphic design of messages influence readability and understanding."