By Kelly Rouba and Rebecca Hansen
Local organizations can have a tremendous impact on a community’s overall response when they prepare in advance. In particular, organizations that work with people with disabilities or other access or functional needs are best equipped to assist program participants with creating plans to realistically meet their specific needs.
The major benefits to the emergency management community when they include and support such organizations in emergency planning efforts were demonstrated in the evacuation that occurred in Hawaii this past February.
Just hours after the Feb. 26 earthquake in Chile, residents living along the coastal areas in Hawaii started bracing for impact as warnings of an approaching tsunami began circulating.
T. Lay, an administrative assistant for the Hawaii Center for Independent Living (HCIL), first heard about the earthquake around 10:30 p.m. that night. News broadcasts were predicting only a small wave, so she went to bed. A short time later, however, she received a call from a co-worker, who said the phone calls had started in regards to evacuating people who use wheelchairs.
According to Lay, HCIL, a non-profit organization that advocates for the civil rights and service needs of people with disabilities, has worked with consumers to help them create emergency plans. Though she noted that they haven’t worked with Civil Defense extensively, HCIL did take their advice about planning.
And while research shows that many communities have not yet adequately incorporated people with functional and access needs into local emergency plans, staff from HCIL and other disability-related organizations said their efforts to help consumers prepare ahead of time was worth the effort. Before the tsunami was predicted to hit, Lay remarked, “We had completely evacuated everyone, with no fragile, wheelchair-[users], or cognitively disabled left behind.”
After HCIL was advised of the impending tsunami, their phone tree was immediately activated and a text message sent out to the deaf community. Lay noted that by 2 a.m., the evacuation of fragile clients and those in wheelchairs had begun.
By 4 a.m., evacuation of the Harbor Lights residential condominium on Kahului Harbor was well under way, using county buses and buses from Maui Economic Opportunities, Inc., a free shuttle service for those who have a disability.
By 9:30 a.m., Lay and fellow staff members were able to leave what’s known as the Central Valley Area. The group headed to her house along with the last person they helped to evacuate, a severely autistic 46-year-old man.
According to Lay, they were not sure the man would comply with orders to evacuate, but on arrival found that he was packed and ready to go, having listened to broadcasts urging residents to get ready to evacuate.
Ellen Ching, home and community-based services manager for Easter Seals Hawaii (ESH), also reported that having emergency plans was helpful for staff when it came time to alert consumers. According to Ching, their emergency plans are part of the service plans that are initiated by the Department of Health case managers. ESH has an emergency procedure guide and phone trees for staff and individual plans for each participant.
By 5:30 a.m., all services were cancelled for the day and the phone tree initiated notifying all staff and consumers. According to Ching, it was important to notify prior to the sirens scheduled at 6 a.m. “This was important since as soon as the sirens went off, it was difficult to make phone calls as the only thing that you would get was an ‘all circuits were busy’ message for a period of time,” she said.
Ensuring that staff and consumers were alerted was especially critical, Ching said, given the fact that Kauai has only one major road going around the island and traffic jams were expected. All roads in low-lying areas were closed by 9 a.m., which includes large sections of the major road on Kauai.
“If you are caught in traffic in the low-lying areas and the roads get closed, you will have no choice but to abandon your car and walk to the high ground, which is not a good idea with a participant with a disability.”
ESH staff made sure special plans for specific consumers were also carried out, such as for those who live independently. In one case, staff had to go through the flood zone to bring the participant to her family’s home and then return safely back through the flood zone. This was possible only because they knew ahead of time what had to be done and then did it early.
By 10 a.m., all roads into the low-lying areas were closed and by the tsunami’s anticipated time of arrival, the streets were deserted, Lay recalls.
Overall, Lay feels evacuation efforts went smoothly. “It was very pleasing to me to watch the television and see all the low-lying areas on all islands totally people-free! The evacuation went smoothly, efficiently, and was very successful.”
Some people felt efforts were almost a bit overboard, Lay added. “We took a little flak from some people who thought the evacuation was a little bit of an overkill, but it definitely showed the world that we can completely evacuate our islands to high ground, if given a few hours’ notice. Being prepared works.”
However, Lay admits there were some issues that locals have to work on. “If the emergency had turned into a disaster, many people went to the shelters without sufficient items like diapers, aspirin, flashlights, etc.”
Overall, Ching also thinks that their evacuation efforts on Kauai went smoothly. “Once the ‘all clear’ signal was given, staff called families to let them know that services would be resumed on Sunday,” she said.
“On the following Wednesday, the programs filed a tsunami and phone tree drill report to the safety officer. The bottom line is having prepared and practiced our agency plan, as well as working with staff and all clients in their personal plans, made a huge difference in our ability to respond ahead of the anticipated tsunami.”
This is an excerpt of an article provided by EAD & Associates, LLC. For the full article, contact Elizabeth Davis at edavis@eadassociates.com or 718-330-0034.