Every individual can take important steps to prepare for emergencies and
put plans in place in case of a disaster in your community.
If you have a disability or other access or functional need, you may have
to take additional steps to protect yourself and your family.
People with disabilities, and people who have access and functional needs,
have to take a very proactive position in their personal preparedness.
If you think about it, we do it every day. We’re ready for the next little
disaster that we will face everyday.
I always say prepare as if no one’s coming to rescue you. Because the
reality is in a moderate or large event, no one is coming to rescue you
anytime soon.
It may be a very short period of time, it may be a more extended period of
time. But you need to prepare as if, you’re not going to have any of the
resources that you might typically depend on.
The best way, people can start to plan, is by looking at the individual parts
of their daily lives. And figuring out where the potential gaps are.
Do an inventory of yourself, do an inventory of the things that you use on
a daily basis to be living independently and then think about what is essential?
Think about the strategies, services, devices, tools, and techniques you use
to live with a disability on a daily basis.
These may include: Medications, durable medical equipment, service animals,
assistive technology, communication tools, and transportation.
You really have to be focused as to what are your needs? If you end up going
to a shelter for four or five days. Or if you’re stuck and sheltering in a
place, because people just can’t get to you, what are the essential things that
you’re going to need to be able to survive?
As you think about assembling a support team, you need to be thinking about who
are the people in your workplace, who are the people in your neighborhood,
who are the people in your community who might be able to assist you.
Go over your emergency plan with everyone in your support network.
Make sure that someone in your personal support network has an extra key to
your home and knows where you keep your emergency supplies. And teach them how
to use any lifesaving equipment or administer medicine in case of
an emergency.
It’s important that you find out in those places where you receive services
on a regular basis, you find out what their emergency plans are. Ask them! If
you are a person who gets dialysis, what are their emergency plans? If
you’re a person who uses paratransit services – what are their emergency
plans for providing paratransit?
A standard emergency kit includes food, water, and medicine to sustain all
members of your household for at least three days. Visit Ready.gov for a
complete list of suggested items, along with recommendations for how to prepare
a family emergency plan.
Everybody needs to have a kit. And a kit really needs to have some very
basic things in it. Some water, some food. But then you’re going to want to
customize that kit, to make sure that it has the things that you need.
Individuals with access and functional needs may want to consider some of the
following items:
Extra glasses or hearing aids.
Battery chargers or extra batteries, copies of medical prescriptions,
supplies for service animals, and necessary medical supplies.
Visit Ready.gov for a complete list of suggested emergency items for people
with access and functional needs.
People with disabilities and access and functional needs are their own
emergency managers. They know what they need on an everyday basis. And what my
kit looks like is very different than somebody else’s kit.
You want to be thinking about what is it going to take for you both in your
home and out of your home, to be able to maintain your health, your safety,
your independence for a period of a few hours to perhaps a few days.
Preparedness is actually a 365 day a year activity that all of us should
take very seriously. It’s important that every day we do a little something
to keep ourselves as prepared as we possibly can.
The most empowering thing you can do, is take charge, for yourself. During
disaster. During the little storms, and the big storms. And that’s probably
the most positive thing you can ever do for yourself as a person. Because that
gives you control. That gives you control over the outcomes.
Download this brochure about preparing for disaster for people with
disabilities and other access and functional needs from Ready.gov.
Check out the other information available on the site, and get started
preparing today!