DISASTER PLANNING FOR THE DISABLED

During the 2006 Mother's Day flood, city workers in Lowell had to call around to find fresh clothing for nursing home evacuees. A failure to stockpile changes of underwear was just one of many shortcomings in disaster planning that have prompted a top-to-bottom review ever since.

But in Lowell and across the state, officials continue to face obstacles planning for the elderly and disabled during disasters. Confusion remains about the relative responsibilities of state and local authorities - a problem complicated by a shortage of funds.

Dogs and cats seem to have received more attention from the state's emergency management officials than people with disabilities, according to an advocate who has prodded various agencies for two years to develop emergency plans for those with special needs.

"There is progress," said Bill Allan, executive director of the statewide Disability Policy Consortium. "Is it enough? No. Are we any better off now than we were two years ago? I doubt it." As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in a report issued recently, big challenges remain in emergency readiness nationwide. In Massachusetts, officials from three agencies that deal with it - the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, known as MEMA; the state Department of Public Health; and the state Office on Disability - point to a renewed commitment to disaster planning under Governor Deval Patrick, with attention to the needs of the disabled.

Tom Lyons, spokesman for John Auerbach, the state public health commissioner, acknowledged that the state probably had not done enough in the past. "We're trying to change that," Lyons said. "We're trying to adjust, and refocus our efforts to make sure we're doing the right thing."

But local officials and advocates bemoan the absence of clear statewide guidelines for aiding the disabled during disasters. Local officials have tried to cobble together their own plans, but many come up short.

Concord Fire Chief Kenneth Willette, leading a townwide effort to include the disabled in the local emergency plan, said the first step is drawing up a registry of residents with special needs. But this is not as simple as it might seem.

Obviously the list should include "folks with limited mobility, folks with limited cognitive ability," Willette said. But do you incorporate people with limited English-language ability? Children with autism? All the elderly?

And once the disabled are identified, the community may need a specialized communication system to reach them during an emergency, he said. Then there is the difficulty, and expense, of equipping emergency shelters to adequately care for some of the disabled, such as those requiring a ventilator or kidney dialysis.

"Those folks really need electricity, they need to have their medical equipment with them at all times, and, in some cases, they need to be able to remove the waste products," Willette said. "That's a challenge." Providing specialized transportation, supplies, medicines, bedding, and personal care assistants for the disabled also can prove taxing, he said.

In view of the hurdles, including the strain on budgets, officials stress that the disabled should exercise personal responsibility, and that caretakers for the disabled should have backup plans. "No community is going to be able to pick up all the disabled people and take care of them, said Leo Saidnawey, Belmont's emergency management director. "Just like [the] able-bodied, they're supposed to be prepared."

Lexington Fire Chief William Middlemiss said the trend toward fulfilling some needs is to go regional instead of local. "We're trying to break down the governmental lines," said Middlemiss, chairman of the Battle Road Regional Emergency Planning Committee, which includes Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Burlington, Lexington, and Medford. "If a disaster ever happened, it's going to affect populations in neighboring communities." But when the community or the region lacks resources, officials also can turn to MEMA, said Frederick Tustin, a Winchester Fire Department captain and chairman of the Mystic emergency planning committee covering Medford, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Winchester, Woburn, and beyond.

Myra Berloff, director of the Office on Disability, said help is also available from her agency. She said that under the 1990 US Americans with Disabilities Act, the state is required to address needs, and she has set in motion programs to convince state and local emergency officials that they must and can fulfill those needs.

"Where we started two years ago with distrust and dissent, we now have cooperation and understanding," Berloff said. "We have come 180 degrees, from being adversaries to being partners. It has been quite a journey. Are we perfect? No. Are we working toward being better? We sure are." Next month, for example, Medford will host a forum for the city's disabled and first responders sponsored by the disability agency, following one in Chelmsford this month.

Diane McLeod, Medford's diversity director, serves as coordinator for 20 similar forums to be held by June across the state. She said booklets will be distributed to emergency officials to help them cope with nine categories of people with disabilities, including seniors; people with service animals; those with mobility, hearing, or vision impairment; and those with cognitive disabilities, chemical sensitivities, autism, or mental illness.

Berloff said she hopes to extend the forums to other communities if she can obtain state underwriting grants.While acknowledging state and local budgets are stretched thin, Berloff said, "Not everything costs money." For example, she said, shelters can be prepared for the disabled who are in wheelchairs simply by adding a ramp, and people on ventilators need only to have a plug to power them. "A lot of it is a mind-set," Berloff said. "The biggest obstacle is lack of knowledge or understanding." Moreover, she said, the disabled should prepare for disaster by stockpiling necessities such as medication, and determining ahead of time where they might go for assistance beyond what a shelter can offer, such as a local hospital or nursing home.

Berloff said a forthcoming report will include recommendations earmarking which improvements cost nothing and which will require an infusion of cash.

-Adapted from: "Seeking clarity on emergency aid for disabled" by Connie Paige, The Boston Globe, February 28, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/02/28/seeking_clarity_on_emergency_aid_for_disabled/

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