When power outages are more than a nuisance

We all know what a power outage is like. We stumble through the dark to find our flashlights. We check how much power is left on our phone. We worry about the food in our fridge and wait for the power to come back on. A bit of a nuisance, but usually not a big deal.

Now imagine you use a medical device that depends on electricity. Losing power could mean life or death. In fact, 2.4 million Medicare recipients depend on electricity to run their medical and assistive equipment, which can include ventilators and wheelchairs. And while many of them have reserve batteries, such people may need help when the power goes out, especially if it’s for a long time.

Luckily, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just released a new tool to help. The HHS emPOWER map tells officials where the highest number of people on Medicare who use medical devices are in their communities. While the map doesn’t capture everyone who uses a device, it helps give planners an idea of how many people may be in need during a power outage. And that way they can plan ahead.

Emergency responders and community planners aren’t the only ones we need to plan ahead for disasters and emergencies. We all need to look out for our neighbors, and getting our communities ready starts with us. Check out what Ready.gov has to say about community preparedness and check out our resources for people with disabilities.

Getting ready for a disaster for people with disabilities

Dec. 3 is the International Day of People with Disability, organized by the United Nations. With more than 1 billion people around the globe living with some form of disability, the observance is an opportunity to promote understanding and raise awareness — including awareness of preparedness needs for people with disabilities.

An emergency can happen anywhere and anytime. Local officials may order an evacuation, or you may need to take shelter from a tornado. That's why it's critical that all people take steps to protect themselves and make sure they can stay safe and healthy. If you have a disability, there are a few extra tips you should keep in mind to get prepared.

A good place to start is with information. APHA’s Get Ready campaign has created a series of fact sheets for people with disabilities to help prepare for emergencies. The fact sheets offer basic information as well as specific tips for people with hearing, vision, mobility and cognitive disabilities.

Determining the type of disaster most likely to occur in your community will help you design an effective plan. Create a communication plan to help you and your loved ones connect and get help during a disaster. If you have a disability, discuss what help you may need before, during and after an emergency with members of your family, friends, caregivers or neighbors.

Everyone should have basic supplies in their preparedness kit, including flashlights, batteries, a first-aid kit and food and water to last at least three days. But if you have a disability, you may need extra supplies. For example, your emergency kit might require extra batteries for your hearing aid, a tire patch kit for your wheelchair, or an extra battery for your scooter.

Here are a few more tips from our fact sheets:

• If you have a motorized wheelchair and it is feasible and you are able, practice moving around with alternative devices such as a cane, walker or manual wheelchair in case of a power outage.
• If you are deaf or hard of hearing, be ready to communicate with emergency responders by preparing pre-written notes such as “I need a sign language interpreter.”
• Don’t forget to include emergency stockpile kit plastic bags in your stockpile to dispose of your service dog’s waste.

Visit our disability preparedness page to read the fact sheets, listen to recordings or watch in ASL.

Get Ready has new fact sheets for people living with disabilities

Have you ever used our cool, super helpful and totally free Get Ready fact sheets?

We’re excited to tell you that we just added five new fact sheets to our huge list of topics. These new fact sheets focus on helping people living with disabilities think about and prepare for disasters. You can check them out on our disability preparedness page.

We have a general fact sheet with preparedness tips for people with disabilities, as well as fact sheets for people with hearing, mobility, vision and cognitive disabilities. These fact sheets are available in English and in Spanish on our disabilities page. You can add your own logo with our easy-to-use instructions.

Plus, to make the fact sheets accessible to anyone who needs them, we’ve made audio and American Sign Language video recordings of the fact sheets. Once you’ve accessed the fact sheets, check out the podcasts we created on disabilities and preparedness as well.

We hope these new fact sheets help you and the people you care about get ready for any emergency. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Getting ready for a disaster when you’re living with a disability

Here at the Get Ready Blog, we spend a lot of time talking about emergency preparedness and providing general tips to help everyone get ready in case of a disaster. However, being prepared often requires extra planning if you are living with a disability. To learn more, we recently interviewed Danielle Bailey, MPH, a research assistant for the Oregon Office on Disability and Health for the latest episode of our Get Ready Report podcast series.

Bailey says that everyone should take basic steps to get ready for an emergency: identifying the disasters that could happen in your area, creating evacuation and communication plans and putting together an emergency kit. But achieving this level of preparedness, says Bailey, “varies greatly for a person with a disability because of the level of attention and planning required to address their specific needs.”

If you are living with a disability, Bailey says the best practice is to sit down with someone who knows you well — a spouse, friend, family member or caregiver — and decide together “what activities of living you are able to do for yourself and what help you may need before, during and after an emergency.”

Bailey also recommends being very specific when putting together emergency kits. For example, “individuals who can only drink out of a straw, include straws in your bag, or if you use a manual wheelchair you may want to think about having some type of hand protection, such as leather gloves.”
“Think about backup batteries for hearing aids, extra canes and, of course, you need to have a plan around your medication and ensure you have copies of current prescriptions,” Bailey says.

For a general checklist about preparing an emergency stockpile, read the Get Ready checklist (PDF) It’s a good starting place for everyone!

For more great information about getting ready for a disaster when you’re living with a disability, listen to the full episode of our newest Get Ready Report. You can also read the transcript of our interview with Bailey.