Remember persons with disabilities during storms| Opinion
After a four-year streak of mostly quiet hurricane seasons, we're potentially back in a cone of uncertainty. We know the drill - stock up on essentials, try not to panic and get ready to hunker down. While that's more than enough to worry about, persons living with disabilities have even more to consider.
Jackie Fortmann, the deputy director of Ability1st, is not only working diligently with me to ensure that our consumers have access to supplies and up-to-date preparedness and safety information, she is also facing barriers of her own.
Jackie uses a manual wheelchair for mobility and lives with her four rescue dogs. If she did have to evacuate, she will not leave them behind, but knows it would be nearly impossible to find a safe place for the whole family.
"I'm not only not from Florida so I haven't been through many storms, but I get worried that I might have to evacuate and I truly don't know where I would go with my pets," Jackie said. "I also wonder what would happen to me if a tree came into my home or if there was a flood. I would be trapped and that's a very scary thought. Luckily, I have very supportive next-door neighbors who always keep an eye on me as well as co-workers and friends who can help me with anything I need, but I know that not everybody is as lucky as I am."
Some of the other obstacles persons with disabilities face before, during and after a disaster are: notification; evacuation; emergency transportation; sheltering; access to medications, refrigeration, and back-up power; access to their mobility devices or service animals while in transit or at shelters and access to information.
Almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, the National Council on Disability (NCD) estimated that there were roughly 155,000 people with disabilities over the age of 5 – or about 25% of the cities' populations – living in the three cities hardest hit by the hurricane: Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and New Orleans, Louisiana. NCD urged emergency managers and government officials to recognize that for hurricane survivors with disabilities, their needs for necessities were "compounded by chronic health conditions and functional impairments which includes people who are blind, people who are deaf, people who use wheelchairs, canes, walkers, crutches, people with service animals, and people with mental health needs."
Ability1st is a community-based organization that serves more than 1,000 individuals in six counties. Our mission is to offer support services, advocacy, and information to empower persons with disabilities to live independently. We accomplish this by building mobility ramps, providing disposable medical supplies and durable medical equipment, modifying homes to be more accessible, offering mental health and substance abuse counseling, working with homeless and unsheltered individuals to secure housing and much more.
When facing a disaster, though, our organization needs help to keep our more vulnerable community members safe.
Please consider checking in with a neighbor, friend or family member who may benefit from your assistance.
"More than anything, think about what a person with a disability may be going through. If you're scared about what could happen during a storm, they are even more so. It doesn't have to be a big gesture - even just letting someone know that you are there for them could make a difference in their mental state and comfort level. Our community members strive to live independently, but that doesn't mean we want to go it totally alone," Jackie said.
Mandy Bianchi is executive director of Ability1st.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Remember persons with disabilities during storms| Opinion
