People with special needs should include those considerations in their emergency and preparedness planning. It is important to remember that the usual methods of support and assistance may not be available for some time during an evacuation and after the disaster has occurred. If you or someone close to you has a disability or a special need, you may have to take additional steps to protect yourself and your family in an emergency.
| Disability/Special Need | Additional Steps |
| Visually impaired | May be extremely reluctant to leave familiar surroundings when the request for evacuation comes from a stranger. A guide dog could become confused or disoriented in a disaster. People who are blind or partially sighted may have to depend on others to lead them, as well as their dog, to safety during a disaster. |
| Hearing impaired | May need to make special arrangements to receive warnings. |
| Mobility impaired | May need special assistance to get to a shelter. |
| Single working parent | May need help to plan for disasters and emergencies. |
| Non-English-speaking persons | May need assistance planning for and responding to emergencies. Community and cultural groups may be able to help keep people informed. |
| People without vehicles | May need to plan for transportation. |
| People with special dietary needs | Should take special precautions to have an adequate emergency food supply. |
| People with medical conditions | Should know the location and availability of more than one facility if dependent on a dialysis machine or other life-sustaining equipment or treatment. |
| Dialysis patients | Seek treatment immediately prior to moving to a shelter |
| People with mental health conditions | May need help responding to emergencies and getting to a shelter. |
| People with dementia and Alzheimer’s | Should be registered in the Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return Program |
Make a personal disaster plan to help organize necessary information and activities during and after a disaster and share your disaster plan with your support network. Keep copies of your disaster plan in your disaster supplies kit, car, wallet, wheelchair pack, or at work, etc.
Other action steps to prepare for disaster are listed below:
- Notify Henderson 911 that you have special medical needs during an emergency. With that information, they are better able to coordinate and direct response to you in the event of an emergency.
- Identify safe places to go. If local officials have not told you to leave the area, stay upstairs and in the middle of the building, away from windows. Avoid going to the lowest floor because hurricanes often cause flooding. If you are blind or visually impaired, use a long cane in areas where debris may have fallen, or furniture may have shifted. This is recommended even if you do not usually use a cane indoors.
- Keep your service animals with you in a safe place at home or take them with you to a shelter.
- Identify as many exits as possible from each room and from your building. Be sure to include the windows as exits.
- Make a floor plan of your home, including primary escape routes. On the floor plan, mark the rooms where you spend a lot of time. Also, mark where your disaster supplies kit is located. Give a copy of the floor plan to your network to help them find you and your supplies, if necessary.
- Prepare an evacuation plan beforehand. If you must leave your home or workplace, you may need someone’s help to evacuate safely, especially down stairwells. If you need assistance during an emergency and your network is not available, find helpers and tell them about your condition. Give them instructions on what you need and how they can help you evacuate.
- Practice using different ways out of a building, especially if you are above the first floor in a building with many stories. Remember, the elevator may not work or should not be used.
- If you need devices for an emergency escape, think about your physical capabilities before making a purchase. Store devices nearby, where you can get to them easily. This may mean having more than one emergency escape device available.
- Advocate for yourself. Practice how to quickly explain the best way to guide or move you and your adaptive equipment, safely and rapidly. Be ready to give brief, clear, and specific instructions and directions to rescue personnel, either orally or in writing.
- When needed, ask for an accommodation from disaster response personnel. For example, let a responder or relief worker know if you cannot wait in lines for long periods for items like water, food and disaster relief assistance.
- Always keep a small disaster supplies kit in your automobile and maintain more than a half tank of fuel. If you do not drive, talk with your network about how you will leave the area if the authorities advise an evacuation.
- Become familiar with the emergency or disaster/evacuation plan for your office, school or any other location where you spend a lot of time. If the current plan does not plan for people with disabilities, make sure the management at these sites knows your needs.
- Choose an alternate place to stay, such as with friends, family or at a hotel or motel outside your area if you have been told to leave your home. You may have enough early warning time (as with a slow-rising flood or hurricane) to leave before the disaster occurs. Find out if there are pre-designated shelters in your area and where they are.
- Have a care plan for your pets/service animals if you must evacuate your home. Pets will not be allowed into emergency shelters, so it is best to decide now where you will take your pet if you must leave. Service animals are allowed in hotels and Red Cross shelters. However, these places cannot care for your animal. When you leave your home, remember to take a collar, harness, identification tags, vaccination records, medications and food for your service animals with you.
- Everyone with dementia/Alzheimer’s should be registered with the Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return® Program. Safe Return is a nationwide identification, support and enrollment program that aids when a person with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia wanders and becomes lost locally or far from home.
Assistance is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If an enrollee is missing, one call immediately activates a community support network to help reunite the lost person with his or her caregiver.
As an option, you can contact this office for more information on Henderson County’s Project Lifesaver Program which is a similar program. One call to Henderson 911 activates search teams to immediately respond to help reunite the lost person with his or her caregiver.
Online Resources for Special Needs Persons in Emergency Situations
Several excellent online resources are available to help people with disabilities and caregivers to prepare for emergency situations.