Prepare Yourself- Disaster Readiness Tips for People with Disabilities
IMPORTANT UPDATE!
On September 20, 2006, a grand jury issued indictments charging the owners of a St. Bernard Parish nursing home with negligent homicide in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned because the operators failed to evacuate St. Rita's Nursing Home as Katrina approached New Orleans. The Mangaros were charged with 35 counts of negligent homicide and 64 counts of cruelty to the infirm for failing to evacuate. This incident placed all private nursing home operators (in the southeastern states) on notice that they should have plans for evacuation. About 235 patients died in New Orleans area nursing homes and hospitals or while trying to flee those facilities during Hurricane Katrina. See“Families Have No Rights To See Plans,” Tampa Tribune, September 24 2006, pages 1 and 13 ...
To be better prepared as a nation, we all must do our part to plan for disasters. All individuals, with or without disabilities, can decrease the impact of a disaster by taking steps to prepare BEFORE an event occurs. Results from focus groups conducted by the National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI), indicate that people with disabilities need to be more self reliant in emergencies.
You are in the best position to know your abilities and needs before, during, and after a disaster. There are many sample planning templates and checklists available to guide you. However, your plans must fit your own unique circumstances.
Start today! You can take small steps every day to become better prepared. Learn about how emergencies can impact you and your community. Identify your resources, make a plan, and create a “ready kit” and a “go kit”. This brochure is designed to help you get started. Be sure to use some of the other resources that are listed on the back. Start today to become better prepared, safer and more secure.
Be Informed
Learn about the types of hazards that may impact your community (blizzards, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and so on). You can get information from your local Emergency Management Office.
Find out what emergency plans are in place in your community, workplace, service agencies, etc. Look over whether those plans have considered your specific needs.
Identify what the plan is for notifying people when a disaster may be on its way or is actually occurring.
Consider how a disaster might impact your daily routines. Make a list of your specific needs before, during and after a disaster.
Identify Your Resources
Make a list of family, friends, co-workers, personal attendants, service providers and others who can be part of your plan. Include people both in and out of your immediate neighborhood or community, like a relative in another state. Talk to these individuals and ask them to be part of your support network (at least 3 people in each important location e.g. home, workplace, etc.).
Tip: Ask yourself what resources you rely on regularly and determine how a disaster might effect your use of them?
Do you use communication devices?
Do you depend on accessible transportation to get to work, doctor’s appointments, or to other places in your community?
Do you receive medical treatments (e.g. dialysis) on a regular basis?
Do you need assistance with personal care?
Do you rely on electrically dependent equipment or other durable equipment?
Do you use mobility aids such as a walker, cane, or a wheelchair?
Do you have a service animal?
Create an Emergency Plan
Work with your support network to make a plan. You should have a plan at home, work, school, or any place you spend time regularly.
You should make a plan that includes hazards that can impact your community. Apply contingencies you use daily to deal with power outages or transportation delays or breakdowns. This will help you as you consider larger disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and terrorism.
Create a communication plan. Make sure you and your support network have each others contact information and alternate ways to communicate if phones are not working (such as an assigned meeting place, using pagers, email or other technology not reliant on phone lines).
Tip: For individuals who use telecommunications relay services, look into different options to use as back-up including: dialing 711 (nationwide), CapTel (captioned telephone), internet-based relay (through computer, text pager, PDA, etc.), and/ or video relay services (through broadband).
Make an evacuation plan for home, work, school, etc. Identify a primary and secondary way to evacuate the house or building.
Points to Consider: Your personal situation.
Points to Consider: Your personal situation.
If you require assistance to evacuate, create a plan with the assistance of your support network.
If necessary, look into evacuation assistive devices, or the installation of ramps at emergency exits. Identify an area of rescue assistance (where public safety officials can assist you) in any building you visit regularly. Contact the building safety director for help.
If you require accessible transportation to evacuate an area, identify resources both public and private.
Plan for different ways of sheltering. Consider what you can do to safely shelter-in-place. Consider how to shelter with friends and family. Finally, consider how a shelter designated for the public would meet your demands.
Tip: See information below about making a “ready kit” and “go bag”.
If you receive regular services (home health care, transportation, dialysis), make a plan with each service provider. Learn about their disaster plans and how to contact them in an emergency. Work with them to identify back-up service providers.
Checklists and Resources
Be Ready: Create a ready kit and a go bag.
You should create a comprehensive “ready kit” with the many supplies necessary to self sustain for a period of time. Also create a “go bag”containing your most essential items to take with you if you must leave immediately.
Include in your kit: Items on this list can be included in both the ready kit and go bag. It is up to you to decide the most essential items to include for you and your family.
- 3-day supply of non-perishable food and manual can opener. Make sure the food meets your dietary requirements.
- 3-day supply of water. Plan for 1 gallon per person per day, but you may need more, consult with your doctor.
- Medical equipment and assistive devices (glasses, hearing aids, catheters, augmentative communication devices, canes, walkers). Label each with your name and contact information. Be sure to have extra batteries and chargers.
- Medications, including a list of the prescription name, dosage, frequency, doctor and pharmacist. Also consider if medications need to be refrigerated and if so, bring a cooler with an ice pack or other coolant system.
- List of emergency contact information including your support network members in and out of the region, service providers, etc.
- Copies of important documents (birth certificate, passport, licenses, insurance information, proof of address).
Extra set of keys. - Flashlight and radio with extra batteries.
- Cash, credit cards, checkbook, ATM card
- Sanitation and hygiene items. Including soap, denture care, absorbent pads, etc.
- Items for infants, such as formula, diapers, bottles, and pacifiers.
- Supplies for a service animal including food, identification tags, proof of up-to-date vaccinations, and veterinarian contact.
- Clothes, blanket, pillow.
- White distress flag or cloth, whistle, flashlights and/or glow sticks.
Basic first aid kit. - Identify your disability-related or health condition need by writing it down or wearing medical alert tags or bracelets.
Where to Find More Information
Many of these agencies provide materials in large font, audio or video cassette formats, and different languages.
American Red Cross
www.redcross.org • call your local chapter
Center for Disability Issues and the Health Profession, Western University of Health Sciences
evac@westernu.edu • (909) 469-5380 (voice) • (909) 469-5520 (TTY).
Easter Seals (s.a.f.e.t.y. First program)
www.easter-seals.org • (800)221-6827 (voice) • (312)726-4258 (TTY)
Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fema.gov/preparedness/ • (800)480-2520 (voice)
Humane Society of the U.S. (Disaster Center)
www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/ • (202)452-1100 (voice)
National Organization on Disability
www.nod.org/emergency • (202)293-5960 (voice) • (202)293-5968 (TTY)
National Spinal Cord Research Association Resource Center on Emergency Preparedness
www.spinalcord.org • (800) 962-9629 (voice)
NOAA Weather Radio
www.weather.gov/nwer/special_needs.htm
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
www.ready.gov • (800)BE READY (voice) • (800)464-6161 (TTY)
U.S. Fire Administration
www.usfa.fema.gov/safety/atrisk/ • (301)447-1000 (voice)
United Spinal Association
www.unitedspinal.org • (718) 803-3782 (voice)
The Center For An Accessible Society
www.accessiblesociety.org/
Disability Preparedness Resource Center
www.disabilitypreparedness.gov/
This disability preparedness web site provides practical information on how people with and without disabilities can prepare for an emergency. It also provides information for family members of, and service providers to, people with disabilities. In addition, this site includes information for emergency planners and first responders to help them to better prepare for serving persons with disabilities.
An ADA Guide for Local Governments - Making Community Emergency Preparedness
and Response Programs Accessible to People with Disabilities
www.ada.gov/
www.ada.gov/emergencyprep.htm
Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Disabilities/Limitations
www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/disable.htm
The Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities
www.advocacycenter.org/
The Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, Inc., is a non-profit organization providing protection and advocacy services in the State of Florida. Our mission is to advance the dignity, equality, self-determination and expressed choices of individuals with disabilities.
Independent Living Research Utilization
http://www.ilru.org/index.html
http://www.ilru.org/html/publications/directory/florida.html
Centers for independent living (CILs) are private, nonprofit corporations that provide services to maximize the independence of individuals with disabilities and the accessibility of the communities they live in.
Agency for Persons with Disabilities
http://apd.myflorida.com/
Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities
Florida Division of Blind Services
http://dbs.myflorida.com/
Disaster Mitigation for Persons with Disabilities
For the 54 million Americans with disabilities, and millions of others around the world, surviving a disaster can be the beginning of a greater struggle. Whether an individual with a disability requires electricity to power a respirator, life-sustaining medication, mobility assistance, or post disaster recovery services, relief organizations and rescue personnel increasingly must be prepared to address the needs of that individual in the hours and days following a disaster.
Similarly, efforts to accommodate disabled Americans frequently ignore disaster preparedness and response. As a result, too few disaster response officials are trained to deal effectively with people with disabilities, and too few disabled Americans have the knowledge that could help them save their own lives.
Seven key principles should guide disaster relief:
1. Accessible Disaster Facilities and Services:
Communications technology is vital for people with disabilities during a disaster to help assess damage, collect information, and deploy supplies. Access to appropriate facilities -- housing, beds, toilets, and other necessities -- must be monitored and made available to individuals with disabilities before, during, and after a disaster. This access also must be ensured for those who incur a disability as a result of a disaster. Appropriate planning and management of information related to architectural accessibility improves the provision of disaster services for persons with disabilities.
2. Accessible Communications and Assistance:
As communications technology and policy become more integral to disaster relief and mitigation, providing accessibility to the technology for people with disabilities becomes more essential. For example, people with hearing impairments require interpreters, TDD communications, and signaling devices. In addition, written materials must be produced on cassette tape, on CD-ROM, or in large print for people with visual impairments. People with cognitive impairments, such as those with developmental disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, or brain injury, require assistance to cope with new surroundings and to minimize confusion factors. It is crucial that people with disabilities help develop accessible communications and reliable assistance technologies.
3. Accessible and Reliable Rescue Communications:
Accessible and reliable communications technology is critical to ensuring fast, effective, and competent field treatment of people with disabilities. Current satellite and cellular technology as well as personal communication networks permit communication in areas with a damaged or destroyed communication infrastructure. Communications technologies can assist field personnel in rescue coordination and tracking and can be combined with databases that house information on optimal treatment for particular disabilities or that track the allocation of post disaster resources.
4. Partnerships with the Disability Community:
Disability organizations must join with relief and rescue organizations and the media to educate and inform their constituents of disaster contingency and self-help plans. A nationwide awareness effort should be devised and implemented to inform people with disabilities about necessary precautions for imminent disaster. In the event of a sudden natural disaster, such a program would minimize injury and facilitate rescue efforts. In addition, more young people with disabilities should be encouraged to study technology, medicine, science, and engineering as a way of gaining power over future technological advances in disaster relief and mitigation.
5. Disaster Preparation, Education, and Training:
Communications technologies are crucial for educating the public about disaster preparedness and warning the people most likely to be affected. Relief and rescue operations must have the appropriate medical equipment, supplies, and training to address the immediate needs of people with disabilities. Affected individuals may require bladder bags, insulin pumps, walkers, or wheelchairs. Relief personnel must be equipped and trained in the use of such equipment. In addition, relief personnel should provide training, particularly for personnel and volunteers in the field, on how to support the independence and dignity of persons with disabilities in the aftermath of a disaster.
6. Partnerships with the Media:
Many natural disasters can be predicted in advance. Disaster preparedness for people with disabilities is critical in minimizing the impact of a disaster. The media -- in partnership with disability and governmental organizations -- should incorporate advisories into emergency broadcasts in formats accessible to people with disabilities. Such advisories alert the public, provide a mechanism for informing rescue personnel of individual medical conditions and impairments, and identify accessible emergency shelters. The creation and repetition of accessible media messages is critical for empowering people with disabilities to protect themselves from disasters.
7. Universal Design and Implementation Strategies:
Designing universal access into disaster relief plans, far from being a costly proposition, can pay off handsomely. As accessible communications tools become more widely available, their price will decrease. In addition, a universal design approach to meeting the needs of people with disabilities before and after a disaster will benefit many people without disabilities, such as the very young or the aged. A look at existing agreements among relief organizations and local, state, federal, and international governments will offer guidance in developing effective strategies for universal design and implementation plans. The federal government's role has yet to be defined, but it could encourage or even mandate universal design and set standards. For example, the federal government could provide guidelines for evacuation plans or pre-disaster warning periods.
From a report by The Annenberg Washington Program written in collaboration with the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities by Dr. Peter David Blanck, Annenberg Senior Fellow.
