WUNRN
GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING FOR
DISASTERS & EMERGENCIES FOR WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES & SPECIAL NEEDS
DISASTER ADVANCE PLANNING FOR
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES & OTHER SPECIAL NEEDS
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Direct Link
to Full 5-Page Brochure:
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PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES -
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES OR ACCESS & FUNCTIONAL NEEDS
If you have a disability or an access and functional need, you may need to take
additional steps to prepare for emergencies.
- Stock
a basic disaster supply kit.
- Inventory what you use
every day to live independently. Identify the essential things that you will need to be
able to survive for 3 to 5 days or longer, if people cannot get to you.
- Stock these custom
essentials in your kit. For example, your kit may contain items such as
durable medical equipment, assistive technology, food for special diets,
prescription medicines, diabetic supplies, hearing aids and batteries, a
TTY, manual wheelchair, and supplies for a service animal.
One of the biggest challenges to your safety and
access to information is loss of
electrical power. You should plan alternate ways to charge your
communication and assistive technology devices before disaster strikes.
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Plan to stay independent during times when services may be unavailable during an emergency.
Create a Support
Network
- Plan how you will contact your family members by
calling, or emailing, or texting agreed upon friends or relatives if
you’re unable to contact each other directly.
- Let people in your support network know of your
emergency plans. Tell them where you keep your emergency supplies.
They may be able to assist you in ensuring that your assistive devices
will go with you if you have to evacuate your home.
- If you use oxygen or other medical equipment, show
friends how to use these devices so they can move you or help you
evacuate. Practice your plan with your personal support network.
- Discuss assistance you may need with your employer in
the event of an emergency.
- Create a plan and share it with neighbors, friends,
co-workers and relatives so they know what you need and how to contact you
if the power goes out.
- Contact your city,
county, or state
office of emergency management, the local fire and police department,
disability organizations, such as the local Independent Living Center, or community groups.
Discussyour specific needs and/or the needs of a family member and find
out what assistance or services are available. Some state emergency
management offices or agencies keep a voluntary registry of people with
disabilities.
Collect Important
Information and Phone Numbers
- Keep a list of contacts, including family, and friends
and list the best way to reach them in an emergency.
- Keep a list of the local non-profit or community-based
organizations that could provide assistance.
- Maintain a list of phone numbers for your doctors,
pharmacy, and the medical facilities you use.
- Make copies of medical prescriptions and doctors’
orders for assistive devices that you use. List where you got the
devices from and see if your local pharmacy is willing to provide a list
of your prescription medicine and devices for you.
- Make copies of medical insurance cards, Medicare or
Medicaid cards, physicians’ contact information, a list of your allergies,
and your health history.
- Even if you do not use a computer, put important
information onto a flash drive for easy transport in the event of an
evacuation.
- If you own a medical alert tag or bracelet, wear it.
- Keep track of which TV stations broadcast news that is
captioned or signed
- Find out if your community has a public warning system
and if so, what the warning sounds like.
- When traveling or in an unfamiliar area, know what type
of alert and warning services are used and where to find them (station,
network, etc.)
- If you receive dialysis or other life sustaining
medical treatment, identify the location and availability of more than one
facility and work with your provider to develop your personal emergency
plan.
Make Backup Plans
to Receive Medical Treatment
- If you work with a medical provider or organization to
receive life sustaining medical treatment such as dialysis, oxygen, or
cancer treatment, work with the provider to identify alternative locations
where you could continue to receive treatment.
Make Backup Plans
to Receive In-Home Care
- If you receive in-home assistance or personal
assistance services, work with your agency and develop a backup plan for
continued care.
- Ask how you can continue
to receive services from providers such as a Center for Independent Living, Meals-on-Wheels,
or medical and life alert services.
Stay Mobile with
Accessible Transportation
- Plan ahead for
accessible transportation that you may need for evacuation or getting to a
medical clinic. Work with local services such as Older
Adults Transportation Service (OATS) to identify your local or private accessible
service.
Plan for Possible
Evacuation
- During an emergency, be ready to explain to first
responders and emergency officials that you need to evacuate and choose to
go to a shelter with your family, service animal, caregiver, personal
assistant, and your assistive technology devices.
Note that people should only be referred to a medical shelter when they have acute health care needs and would typically be admitted to a hospital.
Plan for Power
Outages Before They Happen
- Before disaster strikes, you may register with your
power company. They may alert you when power will be restored in an
unplanned outage and before a planned outage.
- In the event that you cannot be without power, plan for
how you will have power backup. If possible, have backup battery,
generator or alternate electrical resources.
- Make sure that devices
that will maintain power to your equipment during electric outages are
charged. Watch this video about severe weather (with ASL) to learn
more.
- Purchase extra batteries for motorized wheelchairs or
other battery-operated medical or assistive technology devices. Keep
the batteries charged at all times. Consider whether you could
charge your wheelchair from your car.
- Backup chargers for a cell phone could include a
hand-crank USB cell phone emergency charger, a solar charger, or a battery
pack. Some weather radios have a built in hand crank charger.
- Backup chargers for a laptop or tablet could include a
12V USB adapter that plugs into a car, an inverter, or a battery jump pack
with an USB port.
- People who are deaf or hard of hearing can get
important information on a cell phone or pager. Sign up for
emergency emails and text messages on your cell phone from your local
government alert system.
- Plan how you are going to receive emergency information
if you are unable to use a TV, radio or computer. This may include
having an adaptive weather alert system to alert you in the event of
severe weather.
- Plan for medications that require refrigeration.
- Having flashlights available will also facilitate
lip-reading or signing in the dark.
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