NYS Independent Living Council, Inc.

In 2005 a report A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina (http:Katrina.house.gov) was released by the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. It listed over ninety specific failing at all levels in planning and responding to the hurricanes and coastal storms of 2005. But it failed to address the unique challenges persons with a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities before, during, and after a disaster. Assessing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Persons with Disabilities.
http://www.rtcil.org/products/NIDRR_ExecutiveSummaryKatrinaReport.pdf
http://www.rtcil.org/products/NIDRR_FinalKatrinaReport.pdf
sought to identify major barriers faced by centers for independent living (CILs) and emergency managers in responding to the needs of people with disabilities with Hurricane Katrina. Through a combination of surveys, focus groups, and interviews in six research sites in the Gulf Coast states, investigators gathered information on the experiences of respondents and developed recommendations to address gaps in policy, planning, and practice.

The Executive Summary included the following Key Findings and Reccomendations.

Key Findings

There were significant gaps in three broad areas:

• pre-disaster planning by CILs, individuals with disabilities, and local emergency management agencies;
• pre- and post-disaster communication and information sharing within CILs, between CILs and consumers, and between local emergency management agencies; and
• pre- and post-disaster coordination between CILs and other disability agencies, local and regional emergency management organizations, and community supports.

Recommendations

1. An initiative should be developed that places statewide independent living councils (SILCs) in a leadership role that brings together disability organizations and emergency management organizations in all states.
   
   
2. Disability organizations, including CILs and SILCs, should initiate planning for campaigns targeted at local and state emergency managers to separate the needs of people with disabilities from other persons with so called “special needs.”
   
   
3. Staff and consumers of CILs should implement systematic training and education so that increased numbers of people with disabilities will have personal disaster plans.
   
   
4. An education and training curriculum should be developed around effective organizational disaster response and recovery plans for CILs across the country. This should include content specific elements of an organizational disaster plan, materials that can be used by the leadership and staff of CILs and technical assistance to CILs for developing and implementing these plans.
   
   
5. User friendly, evidence-based research findings should be made available to assist CILs, other community-based organizations, and interested people with disabilities to help them understand how existing emergency planning and response systems from around the country operate.
   
   
6. State emergency management officials should be encouraged to designate one or more disability contacts at the city and county level as first responders or relief providers for inclusion in emergency operations centers when a disaster strikes.
   
   
7. Community wide efforts should be put in place that identify persons with disabilities in need of additional services in a disaster and should be developed to link these persons to services required to either evacuate or “shelter in place.”
   
   
8. Community wide efforts need to be put in place that can identify functional supports, including accessible transportation, durable medical equipment, alternative communication systems such as screen readers, sign language interpreters, etc., personal assistive services, and accessible shelters for persons with disabilities in a disaster. Systems need to be developed to link these goods and services to individuals who need them during evacuation and when in shelters.
   
   
9. Investments need to be made at the community level to provide back-up community supports for persons with disabilities in disaster effected areas whose abilities to function independently are dependent upon maintaining access to social and medical services.