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Disaster Preparedness for People with Disabilities

A guide for students, staff, and faculty at UCSC

BEFORE A DISASTER

• Check for hazards in your home or residence. During and right after a disaster, ordinary items in the home can cause injury or damage. Anything that can move, fall, break or cause fire is a home hazard. Brace bookcases, hanging pictures, or overhead lights that could fall in an earthquake or a flood and block an escape path.
• Have sufficient disaster supplies on hand. Keep critical items (marked with an asterisk below) within your reach at all times.
  • Flashlight with extra batteries*
  • >Essential medicines (three-day supply)*
  • A whistle (for letting people know if you are trapped)*
  • Portable, battery-operated radio and extra batteries
  • First aid kit and manual
  • Emergency food and water (three-day supply)
  • Non-electric can opener
  • Extra wheelchair batteries, oxygen, catheters, or other special equipment
  • Food for guide or service dogs
  • Cash and credit cards
  • Sturdy shoes
  • An extra cane (if you are blind)
• Maintain a list of the following important items and store it with the emergency supplies. Give a copy to another family member and a friend or neighbor.
  • Special equipment and supplies, e.g., hearing aid batteries
  • Current prescriptions names and dosages
  • Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of doctors and pharmacist
  • Detailed information about the specifications of your medication regime
• If you use a ventilator, write directions on how you would need to be evacuated and tape them to your ventilator or wheelchair. This information would be critical if you became unconscious or unable to communicate.
• Complete an Emergency Information Card (available from the Disability Resource Center, x9-2089), complete with details about your disability-related needs. Keep it in your wallet. You might wish to make copies and keep one by your bedside, tape one inside your refrigerator, and give one to your attendant.
• Create a self-help network of neighbors, friends, co-workers or classmates to assist in an emergency. This network is a critical component of disaster preparedness, especially for people with disabilities. Explain the nature of your disability and let them know how they can help you during an emergency. For example, they can help you:
  • By checking on you after an emergency
  • Evacuate
  • Retrieve your emergency supplies
  • Turn off damaged utilities
• To enable your network to be efficient and effective, you might want to:
  • Give them a copy of your Emergency Information Card (described above)
  • Give them a key to your house or apartment (campus Residential Life staff have access to on-campus housing keys)
  • Coach them in advance about how to communicate with you or carry you
  • Teach them how to drive your adapted vehicle
  • Show them how to operate your wheelchair so they can move you if necessary
• Wearing medical alert tags or bracelets to identify your disability may help in case of an emergency.
• Know the location and availability of more than one facility if you are dependent on a dialysis machine or other life-sustaining equipment or treatment.
• If you have a severe speech, language, or hearing disability:
  • If you use a TDD to dial 911, tap the space bar to indicate a TDD call.
  • Keep a writing pad and pencils with you to communicate with others.
  • Keep a flashlight handy to signal your whereabouts to other people and for illumination to aid in communication.
  • Remind friends that you cannot completely hear warnings or emergency instructions. Ask them to be your source of emergency information as it comes over their radio.
  • If you have a hearing ear dog, be aware that the dog may become confused or disoriented in an emergency.

PLANNING FOR EVACUATION

• Be ready to evacuate. Your evacuation plan should include two means of escape from each room in your home, workplace, and/or classroom location. That means that students and faculty should revise their evacuation plans every quarter. If you live or work on campus, you should discuss your evacuation plans with your Residential Life Coordinator or your supervisor.
• Many buildings at UCSC have emergency evacuation maps posted near elevators or exits. Information about building Areas of Emergency Assistance is currently being posted at every elevator call station.
• Practice evacuating using your identified escape routes. If your normal route utilizes an elevator, plan to use an alternate route and/or the nearest Area of Emergency Assistance.

EVACUATING A BUILDING

• In the event of an earthquake, protect yourself from falling objects by crawling under a desk or table.
• In case of fire, avoid elevators and areas near them, which tend to fill with smoke. Move towards exits and stairwells, but avoid doors which are excessively hot, or if there is smoke in the hallway.
• If you need evacuation assistance which cannot be provided safely by people around you, call campus dispatch immediately (x911). Give your location and the type of assistance needed. If you are in class, tell your instructor of your need for assistance.
• If you cannot evacuate from a building, go to the nearest Area of Emergency Assistance. Find someone to tell of your whereabouts. If there is no one available, call for help or blow a whistle to get someone's attention. If conditions permit, open a window and wave a length of fabric to draw attention to your location from the outside.

FEMA's (Federal Emergency Management Agency) website has many documents, including several specifically for people with disabilities.

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