Residents evacuated from areas surrounding the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are checked for radiation exposure in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
When natural disasters strike, whether or not people in a community choose to evacuate may depend on the social ties present in that community, according to new research based on a 2018 earthquake in Japan.