Interesting. As the population ages, this will (or should) become an increasingly important consideration in disaster planning.


The report was to be released publicly Wednesday morning at the National Conference on Community Preparedness in Arlington.

...vibrating pillows could save lives.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/12/disaster-plans-leave-disabled-behind/print/

Four years after Hurricane Katrina exposed major deficiencies in the capacity of governments to evacuate and care for the disabled during a natural disaster, America's most vulnerable citizens are barely considered in most emergency plans, according to a report being issued Wednesday by the National Council on Disability.

The report says huge gaps exist in those emergency plans despite an executive order issued by President Bush in 2004 urging federal and local governments, as well as private organizations, to consider the unique needs of the disabled when planning rescues and preparing to provide emergency shelter.

The 500-page report also criticized government disaster planners for failing to seek input about the needs of the disabled from the community and its advocacy groups. Among other problems the report cited were issues involving service dogs, relocation in trailers and mobile homes, the effectiveness of various warning systems and different transportation needs.

One thing that I find annoying even during normal times is how brain-dead employees (and business owners) deal with service animals.

A guide dog is a TRAINED dog, not an unhousebroken stray covered with ticks and lice.

A service dog that just got out of the passenger compartment of a 747 isn't going to cause problems in the old limo that takes them to their hotel. It isn't necessary for them to wait for the shuttle bus.

The Washington Times is running a breathless expose' containing the shocking revelation that existing government plans cope poorly with the "disabled". It is noted in passing that "disabled" is a pretty broad category.

As someone who gets around in a wheelchair these days my plan is pretty simple: be gone before a disaster, or be prepared to wait it out for 30 days until the mobile folks can deal with me. But I'm reasonably flexible and functional.

Probably the main thing is that handicapped people may need more space when evacuating. A blind person requires their seeing-eye dog or other assistant: I'm not getting on any evac bus without my (folding) wheelchair. Many require oxygen bottles.

At the extreme are those that are going to have to be moved via ambulance, or need electric power continuously to power medical gear. But many are intermediate cases that might fit into evac and shelter plans with a little thought by *everybody* (especially the handicapped themselves).

My primary evacuation plan is to move myself in my wheelchair-van, taking along a manual wheelchair and a couple of 4' and 5' portable ramps, and extra water, food and blankets as the situation warrants. That van already has quite a bit of "just in case" gear.

Evac plan B is to go in just my manual wheelchair. This is if someone else drives or evac is a bus, etc.

At an evac shelter the main need is to avoid stairs and not to pack things too closely together - there needs to be a wide enough path for the wheelchair to move - and the wheelchair must stay within arm's length of me at all times I'm there, no exceptions, even when sleeping on a cot. A fixed amount of space per person, with cots laid out in a neat grid, may be problematic.

It appears I took too long editing my thread-start post on the same story...

Seeing-eye dogs also have a fairly strong legal status. People running evac or shelters have to realize those dogs get to come along and it's not their choice.

Probably the main things to shelters & evac to realize is that the handicapped may need a little more room for wheelchairs & such, and that stairs won't work for some. FEMA trailers don't make sense without a ramp.

As the father of a young adult daughter who has multiple challanges as a result of a prenatal head injury, this is a subject near and dear to my heart and head. Our family emergency plans are geared to this issue. Some years ago, while visiting my in-laws in Florida, my wife, daughter and in-laws had to be evacuated due to the raging wildfires. I am pleased to tell you that they were assigned to a special needs convoy with a police escort and provided with primitive but appropriate accomadations. Physicians and a rudimentary phrarmacy were made available. Kudos to the Florida state OEM. Other state planners should take note.

Somebody always gets missed in the official plans. It is just a fact of life.
It is even more pronounced because mass plans deal with the masses and not the special needs of special groups.
It is good the news is running with it.
Publicity means that somebody will likely be detailed to take care of the oversight.

In this area there is a registry for people with "special needs". An honest attempt to take care of those on the registry is made. If it looks like a person dependent on power may, or does lose power emergency services tries to get them out and to a special shelter that can accommodate their situation. That said there are simply not that many suitable shelters and there are always more people than can be transported.

In the last few years emergency services have sometimes made heroic efforts to save people but there are hard limits as to what can be expected. People who are not mobile are pretty commonly held back during mass evacuations so the maximum number of people can be given the best chance of getting out. Triage works the same way. Using a cold and seemingly heartless logic to save the greatest number of people. Tough calls to make but that is the nature of emergency services.

This is part of the story behind the registry. If registered with emergency services they can be evacuated ahead of a predicted emergency. Before a mass evacuation is necessary. Before being dependent on a wheelchair, respirator or oxygen becomes an issue.

At least I know the Red Cross is doing better at sheltering people with disabilities. The overall training for sheltering people with disabilities is pretty good, and everyone should know how to deal with service animals. Any shelter I'm associated with is going to make sure everyone is taken care of.

I had a tough situation the other night, a fire victim with fairly severe MS. He was out of his apartment until power and water damage could be repaired, and his family could not put him up or assist with his care (ex. stay in his hotel room). We couldn't just put him in a motel, he needed ongoing assistance. And an ER would just evaluate and release him. We were lucky, and found a temporary spot in an assisted living facility, and it was a good place - I would have put my father there. It took less than 3 hours late on a saturday night, and I had to think how many weeks we looked for a bed for my Dad. Like another thread pointed out, sometimes the difference between home and homeless is pretty thin.

Hi. I'm "from the government" now too. Sure, it's a podunk little township, not a big city, and we don't have the resources that a place like Washington DC or NYC does.

But you know what? I have the same basic training - the same course materials, the same access to information, the same guidelines, the same NIMS training and guess what? We actually DO care about disabled people. Not just folks in a wheelchair - folks who have issues with mobility, mental health issues, issues like a need for dialysis and so forth.

And you know how we find out about people with special needs? We ask - we send letters, we post notices at the town hall and we do what we can with the money we have available to do public outreach.

But ultimately, we can't go door to door and demand information from people about who in the house might be on psyco-active drugs, who might need oxygen, who might be blind. We can ask. They don't have to tell.

And so, in our emergency plans, we go with what we know - we know so and so at such and such address needs early notification. We know that the guy on the hill can't be without his O2, so we need to make sure he's got transport. But I can't know about the woman who just had major surgery and is bedridden and needs an ambulance to transport her until she calls and tells me as the river is coming up. And such is the nature of the business.

This article is almost hysterical to the point of absurdity.

I think you are wise to be so prepaired and to have a plan to get yourself out.

Honsely I feel that your plan and prepaiedness is better than 80% (at least) of the non "special needs" people in your area.

Houston has the same type of program. Elderly and disabled people can add themselves to "The List" so that the next time there's an evacuation someone will come for them. They used to have bilingual billboards about it up all over town, though I don't recall seeing any lately...

-Blast

One thing that was pointed out to me is that often when there are numbers of people in an emergency there is a failure to use the assets at hand.

The 6'4" 320 pounds of pure muscle could easily carry a child or someone from a wheelchair down stairs. The problem is that nobody goes to him, explains the situation, asks him to help out and coordinates. Too often people are too intimidated by his size to ask. Quite often the big guys want either never even consider helping, but will if asked, or they want to help but are afraid people will take any attempt to help as an attack.

In my experience most people love to be given something meaningful to do in an emergency. Beats idleness, feeling useless and boredom. They are just waiting for someone to tell them what needs to be done and to delegate some small measure of authority to them before they get involved and put themselves on the line.

Survival is often dependent on your ability to efficiently use resources. People are resources.

Spend some time in a wheelchair and you quickly learn not to try to judge how cooperative the guy is but whether there is a wife with him, or better yet a girlfriend, or best of all a date. No matter how unenthusiastic he is he'll help as soon as he extracts her elbow from his pancreas...

In all honesty I've learned to wait for guys with dates to open doors etc even when it's awkward & inconvenient: you can tell at a glance if they want to score a cheap brownie-point with the girl. It sounds silly but it happens a couple of times a month.

I've used a wheelchair for the past 35 years. Mostly, I don't even think about - nor do my wife and son; it's just there ... how I get around. However, I do think about it in terms of being prepared. It could really be a pain in an evacuation. Thus, I plan on bugging in rather than out but if I need to bug out both my van and my wife's are stocked up to help us deal with most situations.

That said, my experiences in various situations with first responders, other professionals, and the general public has been very reassuring. People are ready, willing, and mostly able to make sure I'm alright (they might need some friendly guidance to avoid killing me with kindness). Over the years this has included getting and accepting friendly offers of help from some pretty unsavory and frankly scary looking individuals. All but the seriously unstable bad guys are, IMO, willing to help someone who they percieve is unable to help themselves. Yes, I know some people are dangerous ... I work on being smart about it and have the means to protect myself and others, but here's my point - - Virtually everybody goes out of their way to ensure that disabled people have what they need. The problems are: (1) some people are going to get passed by in truly bad/high stress situations and (2) you're not gonna get any help if nobody knows you need it.

One last thing - as I've written here before - there are times when triage kicks in and saving a bunch of people versus saving one disabled person becomes a real life decision. I can't think of a tougher call but trained professionals will suck it up and make the right decision.

Geez. A government study could screw up a beach party.

Men are stupid that way. We will to do just about anything if we think it will impress the ladies.

Talking and hanging around with a friend who is a paraplegic I learned that he isn't all that disabled. In many cases he can jump curbs and climb or descend stairs about as well as anyone else. Often better.

The second thing is that he is quite proud of being able to get along without help. One of his pet peeves is people who assume he is more disabled than he is. People who try to pick him up and put him into his car without asking if he needs/wants help. He is quite capable of getting in on his own and stowing his wheelchair.

It is about all he can do to keep from smacking people who assume that because he is in a wheelchair they need to talk loudly and slowly. He has a master degree. You also don't want to get smacked by him. He is incredibly strong and tough.

I know personally that Connecticut and Florida are very active in planning for both elderly and formerly-known-as "special needs" individuals. Since everyone falls on the continuums of normal to clinically insane, and able-bodied to bed-ridden, a new term has been coined: universal access. Just because they are able-bodied and appear normal doesn't mean they don't have a "special need". There is a report out there that details the extended definition of disabled, which could include mild cases of ADHD and paranoia's, including being afraid of the dark or spiders.