While the deadly weather that's swept through much of the South may have displaced thousands of people from their homes, left more without power and caused damages in the billions, it appears unlikely it will disrupt Arbitron’s spring ratings period.

In a letter to clients, the radio ratings service says its spring ratings book will not be affected, despite devastating weather conditions, from tornadoes to flooding, in more than a dozen markets in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi and elsewhere.

“We have not seen any conditions that would lead us to conclude that a survey cannot be conducted in any individual market,” Brad Feldhaus, vice president of product management, diary and national service for Arbitron, tells Media Life.

The company certainly has plenty of experience in situations like this.

Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the fall 2005 and winter 2006 ratings periods for New Orleans.

Surveys were also canceled in Charleston, S.C., following Hurricane Hugo and Grand Forks, N.D., when the upper Mississippi River flooded.

Diary placement was suspended for a period of time in New York after the 9/11 attacks as well as in San Francisco after the 1989 earthquake and in Miami after Hurricane Andrew, though the surveys were completed.

In the case of the tornadoes, Feldhaus explains that they tend to cause damage primarily only where they touch down. "It is generally a relatively small proportion of the population in each market that is severely impacted by weather conditions of this nature.”

The same goes for the flooding, he says. "Arbitron looks at various reports (FEMA, etc.) to identify and analyze the impacted area. We then adjust accordingly."

In the case of diary markets, the devastation came after the company had recruited households and mailed out diaries for the fourth and fifth weeks of the spring survey and while recruitment for week six was underway.

The storms did not force the company to suspend recruitment for any notable period of time so there is no reason that weeks six through 12 shouldn’t continue on schedule.

Because respondents have quite a while to return their diaries after participating it will be a while before the company knows the full impact of the storms on returns for weeks four and five, but with half of the spring survey still to go, Feldhaus says there is plenty of time to make up for any sampling shortfall.

Even if a large percentage of the population in a certain zip code has been forced to permanently evacuate due to the storms, Arbitron will simply sample other portions of the metro area at higher rates to make up the difference.

That doesn’t cause any issues from a research standpoint because Arbitron does not have specific targets for diary placement by zip code. 

While some might question the wisdom of continuing to recruit for diary keepers in areas affected by severe weather, Feldhaus says the company generally finds people who remain in their homes after a natural disaster are very receptive.

“Our interviewers are coached to display empathy, and respondents welcome the opportunity to share their story. For others, participation in the survey signals a return to a state of normal,” he says.

For the moment, Feldhaus says they will continue to monitor the success or failure rates of their call centers in placing diaries and work to assess what proportion of the population in each market may have been affected by the storms.

As for any affected PPM markets, there is even less concern.

While the weather will likely impact listening patterns for a few days in both the April survey, which runs March 31 to April 27, and the May survey, which runs April 28 through May 25, monitoring the effects is a much easier task.

Meters are plugged in nightly and transmit a steady stream of data to the company, which can be easily monitored for irregularities.

“As of now there are no issues to report,” says Feldhaus regarding PPM markets.