Welcome – Francine Wai introduced herself, Debbie Jackson – planner for DCAB, Danny Tengun and Ina Chan from Civil Defense (planning, sheltering), Robin Brandt, consultant
Introduce Francine Wai, Executive Director of DCAB
• Asking you to work, update this plan. Make it a better plan, specific to your needs. Want open discussion about what you general citizens want in this plan.
• Turn the 2007 plan into a 2008 plan. Every year we update this and share it with legislators, policy makers, people who provide funding so that it is responsive to persons with disabilities and special health needs.
• Appreciate you taking your time to spend it with us and provide your opinions.
Introduce the people who will help facilitate the plan.
• Debbie Jackson
• Francine Wai
• Danny Tengun
• Robin Brandt
All the agencies that are collaborating to make these meeting possible.
• Paid for by the CDC.
Debbie will discuss agenda and ground rules.
Debbie:
• Handouts are on the blog
• Hope everyone an agenda – there is an Internet address to allow you to get into a blog. There should be comments on the blog from each visit to each island.
• Everyone get handouts
• Everyone knows where the bathrooms, refreshments are in the back
• Agenda and general timelines – to complete by 3 p.m.
• Copy of powerpoint handout
• Notice the blog address – comments from around the state will be posted
• The PowerPoint to review this morning
• Evaluation form
• Interagency Action Plan handout
• Directions about which facilitator will direct each group and the goals to review. Everyone will participate in every group.
• Lunch will be provided
• Francine and Debbie will provide a handout specific to their sessions
Logistics:
• Location of the restrooms was provided.
Brief ground rules
1. Respect each other. Silence your cell phones and put your pagers on vibrate.
2. Speak one at a time. We have recorders and sign language interpreters.
3. Don’t shoot the messenger. Critique ideas but not the person expressing it
4. Respect the process – let’s follow the agenda and times, start and end the meeting on time.
5. Be open and honest with your communication.
6. Listen to be understood. Don’t “kill the messenger.”
7. Feel free to express ideas others might not agree with
8. Speak one at a time – we are recording notes and if more than one person speaks it make it difficult. This helps the sign language interpreter and the recorder.
9. Ask about the assumptions – ask why. We want your comments, we want your ideas.
Francine – Asked how many people have seen, heard or read this plan? About a third of the group. That’s good.
Review of the agencies that worked on the plan.
This plan was developed by a working group that consisted of a number of state agencies:
• Department of Education – concerned with students
• Department of Health agencies
• Department of Human Services
• All Offices on Aging
• State Civil Defense
• State Council on Developmental Disabilities
• Civil Defense in each county
• American Red Cross
• Health Care Association of Hawaii (all hospitals that must respond)
• The Mayor’s committee on Persons with Disabilities in some counties
• Association of the Blind
• Hawaii Services on Deafness
The plan needs input by the public and particularly people with disabilities
Introduction of representatives from neighbor island meetings.
Introduction of representatives from other nations: Guam, and American Samoa
Why is this issue so important?
• Look at the results of Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. It taught us that when we are not ready, it costs lives. Be prepared. You have your kit ready, you’re your kit, know where the shelter is and go. People who are vulnerable and unable to evacuate: people with disabilities, the elderly, the aged. We want to include more of these people in the planning.
Who are we talking about when we talk about people with disabilities?
• Physical or mobility disabilities – use canes or crutches;
• People who have mental illness or has mental retardation or other cognitive disabilities, people with traumatic brain injuries;
• People who are blind or partially sighted (Some people noted that someone could wave down a bus, unless you can’t identify a bus);
• People with speech or hearing disability (sirens cannot be heard by people who are hard of hearing or Deaf) or people who have difficulty speaking;
• Chronic health conditions or frail elderly;
• Frail children and youth;
• Difficulty in making notification accessible; and
• Other meeting sites suggested inclusion of various groups: single parent families, persons who use English as a second language.
Who are people with disabilities and special health needs?
Harris Poll for National Organization with Disabilities found:
• In doing the plan, if you look at the ADA – it says there are approximately 20% of our population has a disability – about one in five. That’s kind of high – not everyone needs special assistance. If you function by yourself or with a care giver, you could go to a general shelter.
• For this report we are looking at a smaller percent – But the National Council on Disability did a study and we think about 10 -13% (120,000 to 160,000 people) who may need our assistance at evacuation centers.) Concerned about how many would need a Level II shelter.
Other findings in this poll:
• 58% of people with disabilities do not know who to contact in an emergency. Individuals who have casemanagers in a number of services are working to educate about where to go for a shelter.
• 61% have no plans to quickly and safely evacuate their home (identify people in licensed care homes – see last page of the plan – only 12,000 of the 126,000 needing assistance)
• 50% of those employed do not have an evacuation plan (a large portion of the population). Working on that at our work site – that should be planned in your business too. And you need to practice. Know where to meet.
• Where are people located? See last page on the plan to show were 12,000 are – but not most. People with disabilities live where they choose – so we don’t know where they live. Some service agencies know where they live – other live independently. Live in regulated or licensed care homes. Look at last page of your plan and it shows the 12,000 people. Listed by county – so you can see how many people have been identified. Need better idea of where the others who are not shown there, and don’t receive services for providers. There are a lot of people who live independent who have a disability.
As a public agency we know that transportation is an issue.
We know it involves recovery – but that is not in this plan. We need to build infrastructure and then include recovery later.
All objectives have one or two agencies asterisked in this plan so there is an agency that is held responsible.
Debbie
What level of care are needed for an “incident” for the Plan the working group looked at what functional levels people were at and developed shelters that would be staffed to meet that level of care.
Level I is staffed by Red Cross, general population shelter. Anyone who can function by themselves or a little help. There are 200 level I shelters in the state of Hawaii. Most are in schools. Look in the white pages of the phone book – it’s right there.
We want all to be Level II shelters. Level II will serve those with enhanced health needs: diabetes and needs refrigeration for the insulin, someone who needs assistance with changing clothes and feeding. You need to bring your caregiver. If you go to a Level II shelter, you must bring your caregiver. There may not be any assistance. You cannot expect anyone to care for them. We are working on staffing the shelters. If you have any questions, write it on your paper and discuss in the work groups. There will be limited equipment available at Level II shelters – we will discuss in the workshop.
Level III – examples: someone who is 9 months pregnant and ready to give birth; someone who just had major surgery should call the doctor and get directions about what to do. If you are under the care of a physician, you should check with a physician to see what the doctor suggests. May tell them to go to Level I or Level II shelter. Do not go to the hospital. The hospitals are needed for those in need of acute care.
Question: Are transportation bus drivers on theBus first responders?
Answer: Transportation has had the most diverse input from participants on each island.
Any other general questions on the plan? None.
Francine:
We will go through all seven goals rather quickly. You will have more opportunities to make comment on each in the smaller group sessions.
When we use the words “people with disabilities and special health need” – in an emergency everyone has a special need. It might be that you are single parent and your children are half way across the island. Special health needs means insulin, cots, electricity for breathing, etc. Not having English as a first language is not a special health need.
Basic Principals
The first basic principal is that emergency readiness is first and foremost a personal responsibility. Emergency readiness is foremost a personal responsibility. Emergency preparedness is a government responsibility.
1. Government is coming to get you. We are not going to be able to pick up and transport, have blankets, batteries. Each individual is responsible to bring his or her own food, medication and equipment to the emergency shelter.
2. People with disabilities or special health needs should remain as a unit with their families, not be separated. We want to keep people together as a family unit – it means you will care and support for each other and less for the shelter staff and provide emotional assurance.
3. As we begin to increase the number of shelters for everybody and improve overall notification system, it will be a better plan for people with disabilities. This is only an action plan to coordinate with all other plans for emergencies.
4. We are not interested in a registry for people with disabilities. Some people will wait if they are on a registry and think someone will come and get them. Registries go out of date. People get a false sense of security it they put themselves on a registry. Surveys show that people think that if there is a tsunami, someone will come to my house to help me. Although a registry would show that you live at a certain address, you may not be there. We don’t know where people will be there when the emergency hits.
5. Will only list people who live on the island at the time of the registration, but the individual may not necessarily on island at time of disaster. Or, you may have a more severe need at time of the emergency. Will be using any registrations that exist after emergency.
Basic Goals:
Goal 1: All shelters become ADA compliant
Currently – Upgrade the existing shelters. Will tell you about the shelters we are already working on. The training of the shelter workers themselves.
Goal 2: Increase the capacity to shelter in place, if you have a strong enough structure. Not a single frame wooden home.
Goal 3: Increase the number of Level II shelters. The ultimate goal is that all shelters will shelters be Level II shelters that have a limited supply of equipment and medical support.
Debbie –
Goal 4 An accessible public and professional emergency readiness campaign. Go out and promote readiness. Last month, September, was national emergency preparedness month.
Accessibility means physical access. It also means accessible format to get the message out so everyone understands the message.
• Outreach program using existing programs and information. DCAB, Red Cross do this already. Purchase starter disaster kits. We have one to show you and basic components are in it.
• Conduct emergency planning with State case managers (know where the shelter is and how to make a disaster kit). For those who were at risk and cannot afford a kit, kits were purchased for them. The grant bought agencies a bag to show people what minimally needs to be stocked.
Goal 5 –Healthcareproviders must have evacuation plan in place. Nursing homes, adult mental health homes, adult residential care home – will have plans for all people living with them. It did not work at recent emergencies to take all these people and drop them off at a hospital. Many of these people do not need acute care. Overwhelmingly what is seen is that care providers are dropping clients off at hospital. If you care for people, don’t they become members of your family? Would you drop a family member off at a hospital?
Francine, Goals 6 and 7
Danny discussed shelters.
Debbie talked about what you are doing to prepare for emergency.
Then you need to take action.
Goal 6 [read goal] Why is that? People who have may have deaf or hard of hearing may not hear siren, persons with visible disability may not see across the bottom of the television screen, and people with cognitive disabilities may not understand what it means:
• The need for captioning and crawl messages;
• TTYs at emergency information lines;
• Accessible websites; and
• Reverse 911.
Goal 7 –Transportation. We may have some unique needs but may have difficulty getting from point A to point B. What can we do in these situations?
[Read the plan goal and objectives] Will see everyone’s eyes roll – we don’t even have good transportation when we don’t have an emergency. We’ve heard that neighbor islands need to take a different approach.
Danny will discuss the shelters and where they are located. Don’t shoot the messenger. He inherited this problem. It will be with us forever. There is not enough money to give everyone hope there is enough shelter space for everybody.
Danny
Overview of the shelters. 1.4 million people live in Hawaii. There are a large number of beds that are short. (Reading from the Power Point presentation.) This is based on 35% of the population evacuating – it could be more or less. What will happen if 50% or 60% or 70% of the population needs to evacuate?
No funds for Level II shelters. We came up with this solution: use classrooms for special education students as special needs shelters unofficially because they are accessible. If the restroom is not in the room, it will be nearby. Have shelters, refrigerators for the medicine, and shower in the room. We created Level II special need spaces. Only physical space. No equipment yet – we are hoping next year. Examples of spaces to be used. Did neighbor islands first – fewer and this made it easier. Showed some of the possible spaces – these are not official. The Red Cross bought into this and is responsible for overall sheltering. They are responsible for staffing Level I shelters. Pet friendly shelters will be staffed by people by the Humane Society. No one responsible for Level II shelter staffing yet.
We have done simulations to check the situation out – we include persons with disabilities to develop action plan – and now you will be part of it. For the last year and a half we have had people with special needs in the meetings, the simulations. Feedback from managers in Katrina was that meetings were held but not inclusive of persons with special needs.
Discussion about simulations that happened earlier this year. Some participants from the Association of Retarded Citizens (Arc) participated in the simulation. They said that there was a high level of anxiety in the simulation. Danny said that it will be much worse in the real thing. That’s why we plan and practice. For the pet friendly and the general population.
Level I – independent
Level II – enhanced health needs and caregiver
Level III – call your doctor for instruction, don’t go to the hospital, it may be overwhelmed.
Discussion of HUB shelter concept and model. Put money in a few shelters at first. As we get funds then others will become a HUBshelter, until all shelters are HUB shelters and Level II shelters. Otherwise equipment will be inconsistent. In any bad disasters, we must accept people with disabilities and special health needs at all shelters regardless of readiness and equipment availability.
This is an action plan. It includes items to be accomplished. The retrofit plan has no funding so the HUB shelter approach model was adopted. Schools are about 98% of the shelters. Need to put generators and transfer switches (takes 990 not a 110 which is what houses use), to power the communication equipment and cooking kitchens for the campus and possibly other equipment. There will need to be secure storage for this equipment and funding to maintain it.
Oxygen is the first priority. Need transfer switch for use of generators for electricity. Hook up cooking kitchen with the generators. Just for cooking kitchen. Post disaster – to feed the population. If more money is available, will turn on lights and air conditioning. Now Kauai has generators – left by FEMA but are rusting out- cost is $60,000 to $70,000 to maintain.
Need communication equipment and secure storage. Want these to stay in the inventory, and secure storage must be hardened so it won’t walk away.
People must bring own oxygen but there may be some oxygen at Level II shelters. . How many pounds does a hospital bed weigh? Say 400-500 pounds. Let’s say someone is told that they must sleep on hospital bed. We found hospital bed to the shelter – we have some from PVC pipe and filled with polyfoam.
Other initiatives:
Hurricane shelter location brochure; and
Private sheltering program – churches, theatres, parking structures, condominiumassociations (no one living in a condo?), nursing home.
If you have a group, City or County Civil Defense will go out and give presentations to groups.
Loss Mitigation grant program to retrofit your current home now. Roof to wall, all to foundation connections, safe rooms. Up to 35% of the cost, up to $2,100 of costs. Have paper copies to ask for information – and phone number to call for information Call 586-0899. Brought applications with him. Download only the part of the application you need to avoid wasting paper.
Products that can be used for retrofitting: film for windows (tinted, clear and good for up to 200 mile and hour wind), screens used on schools, aluminum screens, roll down shutters. Film will hold shattered window pane in place and not fly. Black shade cloth made of Kevlar for over 200 mph resistance. You can see out but not see in. You strap it into the roof/ceiling and floor. Can only see holes when it is close up. Shelters are slide down, fold up. Hurricane “retrofit” – you can google it on the internet or “shutters.”
Safe room for $5,000 to $7,000 to $10,000. Use in the corner of your house or in the garage. You can put these outside as well or add on to your home. Can get these on the internet. You and your family with your dog. You don’t need to retrofit your whole house. About 4 foot by 6 foot. He would never bring his family to the shelter. He’s seen cots with people guarding them. People steal things from each other. With a safe room, people will bring your pets into it.
Showing a typical shelter– it has nothing in it. One gallon of water per person for 10 days – that’s a lot of water. No flush toilets. You must do your own planning. Photos of things that he has in his kit for an emergency. Hand-operatedcan opener. Shampoos, first aid kits. Miscellaneous things like duct tape, FRS radios, no landline. FRS can talk to family up to 10 miles. Meals – MRE or freeze dried. Date on canned goods. Water. Water purifier. Water treatment tablets. You’ve got to start planning.
Comment: You point to this and that, but a person who is blind cannot see it.
Presenter continued and described the items that are part of a more complete set of equipment and supplies for an emergency. Items that were mentioned included: cot, crank or shake flashlight, glow sticks, duct tape, sterno, hand-operated can opener, plates, cups and utensils. Personal hygiene items, first aid kit with personal medications, hand-held walkie talkies that are good for line-of-sight communication.
Comment: Remember – not everyone has a computer to access lists.
Question: Are there any walkie talkies that have a text or captioning screen on it?
Answer: No, haven’t seen any locally.
Comment: Bring extra hearing aid or other batteries for communication devices.
Comment: I have seen the radios (the walkie talkies) but they are not at the stores, which have captioning.
Question: Communication radios?
Answer: No, just walkie talkies.
Comment: Caption radios are available in Europe but not in the United States.
Question: You are saying all this is what I need to bring to a shelter – right? I can see where I am going and I use a walker. How can I transport all this stuff to a shelter by myself?
Answer: You need to break it into parts and use a wheeled carrier. You will need to work with other people, buddies who are neighbors, friends or family members to help you.
Question: A participant asked a question about the difference between the type of film put on car windows and the film that is used for hardening windows against projectiles.
Question: Could the Civil Defense partner with companies that sell these supplies for hardening a home?
Answer: FEMA has trailers with disaster equipment around the state.
Question: You are talking about this being a personal responsibility. Why not work with KMART, Wal-Mart and various other retail stores that could collaborate and provide supplies needed. Or at the City and County stores, for example – to help consumers.
Answer: Home Depot and Wal-Mart have preparedness fairs. They have kits available.
Comment: I would like to see permanent displays as a constant reminder to be ready for emergencies with the suggested partners.
Answer: Add this to goal 4 or 5 when you attend that group discussion.
Question: Tsunami, hurricanes – how many days or hours advance notice do we have for each of these?
Answer: If a tsunami is a locally generated off Kona, probably about 20 minutes. A tsunami generated in Alaska would allow about 2 days notice. For a hurricane, like Flossie, start on the east coast of Mexico and moves west in the Pacific Ocean. You can get an update in the media when it’s about 5 days out. First they start as a tropical storm and could have high winds and rain – there may need to be a need to evacuate the low-lying coasts even if it is a tropical storm. But people wait until the last minute to prepare and get their emergency supplies.
Comment: In the kits, some supplies need to be replaced. For example, the glow sticks need to be replaced after about a year.
Answer: Yes, that’s right. Can goods should be rotated every three to six months. A book from HECO shows how to prepare for emergencies
Question: What about people in the hotels, apartment buildings? If they get the film, what do they do?
Answer: There are 159,000 tourists a day. They would need to shelter in place. Police have an evacuation plan for Waikiki. No cars will be allowed to drive out of Waikiki. It would be better to walk out.
Question: In some apartment buildings some hallways are on the inside and some are in the exterior or outdoors. Are the interior hallways safer?
Answer: Hallways in the interior are safer. Some people with disabilities or people with special health needs live in building with exterior and that won’t work.
Comment: Emergency kit – even if you have it, you can shelter in place. You can keep water in your bathtub. Leeward residents must shelter in place. Emphasize the need to have personal emergency kits.
Comment: Hospitals are not shelters for persons with disabilities just because they have disabilities. This was a problem in Hurricane Katrina – people with disabilities living in paid care facilities were dropped off at hospitals. They should shelter in place or go to a Level I or II shelter. Hospitals need to be able to provide space and care to people who need medical care.
Answer: Yes, we stress that if there are questions, the doctor should be contacted to determine where the individual should go for shelter.
Question: Return to the slide on preventing the roof from blowing away and discuss it more completely.
Answer: Board the windows with plywood. (Another member of the audience described a situation in which a new house lost its roof because the house was boarded on one side of the house but the other. Board all windows.) Yes, all side of the house windows or openings must be boarded up.
Here is a shot of a piece of plywood that went through a coconut tree.
Picture showing what happens. The wind comes in, blows the roof off and that’s it – this is the end.
If you live in a single wall home, you must get out.
Everyone check your name badge to see which group you should join.
Short break – then move to small group sessions.
