Maui opening session – delayed from 9 a.m. start
Welcome – Marie Kimmie, architect on Maui, Vice chair on Disability Commission Introduce Francine Wai, Director of DCAB
Purpose to help us update this plan as we create a 2008 plan.
Introduce the people who will help facilitate the plan.
· Debbie Jackson, Planner at Disability Communication Access Board
· Danny Tengun, Hurricane Planner, State Civil Defense
· Francine Wai, Director, Disability Communication Access Board
· Robin Brandt, Consultant
All the agencies that are collaborating to make these meeting possible.
Paid for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement.
Thank Mary Matsukawa, set up the logistics from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Debbie will discuss agenda and ground rules
Debbie:
Logistics:
· Identified the location of restrooms
· Refreshments
· Pick up handouts from outside table – telling what we will do and how we will do it
· Count off – in order to break off and
· Danny goal 1, 2 and 3 Emergency Shelters
· Francine goal 6 and 7 Notification and Transportation
· Debbie goal 4 and 5 public education and working with facilities so that we can have people more prepared in the case of an emergency
· Group 1 stay in here
· Group 2 with the food
· Group 3 in the back to the right (without food)
· Break in the morning after the Powerpoint presentations
· We will provide lunch
· Marianna Mathew will be speaking briefly from American Red Cross
· On the registration table – emergency preparedness kits purchased for agencies to educate people with disabilities and those who are elderly to assemble a kit. Purchased from Red Cross. Shows what to have in an emergency kit. All you need to do is add your personal items to it. Distributed kits to DD Council, AAA, Department of Human Services for adult residential care case managers (to demonstrate what to do)
Question: What’s an emergency – a hurricane, a tsunami, and earthquake?
Answer: All of those
Question: Do we go to the hospital?
Answer: we’ll talk about that later, okay? If we don’t, remind me.
Brief ground rules
1. Respect each other – so all cell phones and beepers silenced
2. Be open and honest with your feedback
3. Critique ideas but not the person expressing it
4. Feel free to express ideas others might not agree with
5. Speak one at a time – we are recording notes and if more than one person speaks it makes it difficult
6. Respect the process – let’s follow the agenda and times
7. Ask about the assumptions – work on dialogue
8. Express ideas here at the meeting. If you have an idea that comes up later, and see how things work out – you can access the blog. You can put it up later on. The blog will have the meeting notes from all meetings.
PowerPoint to go over what the plan includes
Francine – from the time that you checked in to now, how many read the current report? The plan is on the website.
How many have seen or read the report – good, a few more than on Kauai Focuses on the needs of persons with disabilities and other special health needs We will finish this and take to the Legislators in January.
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
· EOA
· State Civil Defense
Even though it included all those agencies, it did not include the kind of community planning and support that would make it not just a good plan but a great plan.
So we came to you to review the plan, discuss what we hoped to do, discuss whether it works for Maui county.
Question: will this include TV, news? I don’t see that up there.
Answer: This is just the agencies that developed the 2007 plan. We are hoping to get much more community input. We got lots of good comments from the first meeting.
Comment: Leslie Wilcox would be a good contact for PBS to publicize the report.\
Response: Good – you can add that in Debbie’s session.
Debbie – there are monies for two representatives from this group to join the O‘ahu session. Could this be left in the hands of the Mayor’s Committee? October 22nd. Representatives will report back on O’ahu to speak for Maui County. Let Debbie or Mary know if you are interested.
Why is this issue so important?
Look at the results of Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. When there are no preparations then people lose their lives. Particularly those who are vulnerable and unable to evacuate: people with disabilities, the elderly, those with special health needs. 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
People with mental illness or mental retardation or other cognitive disabilities People who are blind or partially sighted (Someone on O‘ahu noted that during an emergency someone could wave down a bus, unless you can’t identify it as a bus)
People with speech or hearing disability (sirens cannot be heard by people who are Hardor-Hearing or Deaf)
Chronic health conditions or frail elderly may not be able to get to a shelter
In doing the plan, if you look at the ADA – it estimates approximately 20% of our population has a disability – about one in five.
But the National Organization on Disability did a study and we think about 10 to13% (120,000 to 160,000 people) who may need our assistance
50% of people with disabilities do not know who to contact in an emergency
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 (in the Disability Communication Access Board office, each staff has a kit ready.
Question: How do you decide who is employed or not employed (in terms of facility evacuation)?
Answer: Have an emergency plan and kits at home, in your car, and one in your office. State employees are civil defense workers during an emergency.
People with disabilities in the general community live any where. How do we find them? Will be sending out a survey to find out where clients live so we can determine where to place Level II shelters. If you work for an agency, please consider filling out the form and returning it in the enclosed envelope or by fax.
Last year we added transportation to the Action Plan
Question: Do you mean here on Maui?
Answer: All around the state
Danny Tengun – talking about shelters
My title as hurricane planner for the State of Hawai‘i, by default also makes me the shelter person due to the lack of shelters. The accessible shelters and pet friendly shelters are included.
Level I shelter is for persons with disabilities who can care for themselves. It is a segregated shelter. Single males cannot sleep with single females. This is because it requires order. This is a general shelter.
Question: If I don’t have a disability, do I go to a general shelter?
Answer: If you feel that you can perform your own needs you go to a Level I shelter.
Level II is for someone who needs help changing clothes, feeding, medication, have life-sustaining equipment.
Question: If you have a caregiver to assist you, do you do to Level I shelter?
Answer: No, you go to Level II shelter. We are telling care homes, if you are a caregiver or care home provider, you should make an agreement with Red Cross to “reserve a space” at a Level II shelter. The whole thing is about planning. If a hurricane is two-three days out – it’s too late to make plans.
Question: Change the language on page 2 of the Action Plan.
Answer: It depends on the situation. It’s not black and white right now. If you want to bring your caregiver and go to Level I shelter, that’s fine.
Question: So if the child requires assistance from a parent, they go to Level I shelter?
Answer: Yes.
We are getting into definitions now. After the presentation you may have a better idea of what we are talking about. You may want to hold your questions until we meet in groups.
We could have more or less levels. It’s better to do something than nothing. That’s why we are here today – to discuss [this plan]. Look at the wordage. Lots of great things that came up in Kauai and I expect that today also.
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. This area needs more discussion. This is simply a concept now. Anyone needing acute medical care should go to a Level III shelter.
Francine:
We’ll go through all seven goals rather quickly. You will have more opportunities to make comment.
Emergency sheltering is a personal responsibility; whether we want the responsibility or not.
PWD or special health needs should remain with their families, not be separated. We want to keep people together as a family unit – it means you will care for each other and less for the shelter staff or health staff to attend to.
This plan must be done in the community – not in isolation.
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.
Basic goals:
1, 2 and 3 all cover what happens in a shelter
Upgrade the existing shelters. Will tell you about the shelters we are already working on. Goal 2 we will never have enough money to shelter everyone who needs a shelter. Everyone should try as much as possible to shelter in place.
Tax credits and care facility – loss mitigation program has money at DCCA for mitigation of personal homes (adding hurricane clips, etc. up to $2,100).
Goal 3 increase the number of Level II shelters. Hope to move Level II and pet friendly shelters to the same campus.
Debbie –
Goal 4 is an important part of planning when things are in place and Level II shelters are available. We need a broad-based educational effort. Develop statewide materials like Red Cross website an emergency supply checklist, and information about what people with disabilities might need. Very good resource. We need to utilize what we already have.
Utilize case managers
Goal 5 – healthcare providers must have evacuation plan in place. Not just dropping off people at the hospital because they have a developmental disability. Develop appropriate county procedures and practice the plan.
Francine, Goals 6 and 7
Goal 6 Communication. Great to have shelters and care kit ready, but we need notification of the disaster. Connect with notification. People with disabilities or special health needs shall receive information from many avenues. Need to work with broadcast media. Redundant information sent out. Accessible websites. Alert paging systems – reverse 911 systems. What’s the best way to notify people and that they understand what the emergency is and how to respond?
Goal 7 – We shelter in place, we notify it, but how do we get there? Each county is ready or has a plan to help people with disabilities or special health needs get to the shelter. This may not be a government agency person to come get you, so you must have contingency plans. Develop and operationalize a service plan and advise people with disabilities about transportation options, particularly given a remote or hard-to-access area.
Hold questions for discussion on small groups.
Danny will discuss the shelters and where they are located. Is anyone is present from Molokai or Lanai? For the most part, we will be discussing Maui. If you know something unique to these islands, please bring that up during the smaller sessions.
We have people here from Hana. Expecting three people from Lahaina, but no one attending at this point. In an emergency, needs are very local. Our preparation can be the same, but the response may be different.
Overview of the shelters
Question: Is there a handout?
Answer: No, but it will be on the blog. We are over 153,000 spaces short. The Red Cross in charge of the shelters. 10 square feet of space per person. 15 square feet for persons with special health needs. Need to think about how to get water.
On Maui, 10,000 spaces short. It is a serious problem.
Question: How many spaces do you have? Please read out the numbers.
Question: What do the shelters look like?
Answer: Any building that is a hardened building. 98% are Department of Education schools. Some were built using old building codes, so we are doing retrofit.
Question: Hardening to what level hurricane?
Answer: We harden the building to a 200 mile an hour hurricane, but built to 80 mile an hour building.
Question: Why does Kauai have fewer spots lacking?
Answer: Because Kauai has been hit [by hurricanes] twice now. Priority: Molokai, Hana and what?
Question: What about the schools by the ocean?
Answer: Do not use those schools.
Question: To the Maui statistics, did you include Molokai and Lanai? Answer: Yes.
Question: You spoke about a family who has an individual with special needs and contacting Red Cross.
Answer: You can get in touch and check about availability.
Question: In all the classes that Red Cross has been teaching, this has never been mentioned.
Answer: This is all ideas! Remember that the Red Cross worker coming to teach or put together a kit may not be the person planning the shelter. Everyone in Red Cross may know the full scope of it.
Comment: Listen to the radio. Find out which shelters are open. Some of the shelters you are talking about may be used for purposes other than hurricane. Like when there was the fire, then the schools by the ocean can be used.
Response: There are different levels of shelter.
Question: Are you talking about shelters for people with disabilities?
Answer: General shelter.
Question: You need to bring your own bedding, water, etc.?
Answer: Yes.
As I went to the outer islands, I was looking for special needs shelters. We are thinking about using the Special Education (SPED) classrooms, because they have accessible bathroom, room and kitchen. These became the Level II shelters.
Question: Will these have generators?
Answers: No, I haven’t even discussed equipment yet.
Until we get county Civil Defense and Red Cross buys in, these are tentative yet. Remember when Flossie was going to hit? County can decide not to open any shelters. Shelters may be designated – no equipment, no staff. We have the space.
Only one room? Yes. We did the best we could with what we’ve got. We are not going to build any Level II shelters. We did site surveys, table top exercises, simulations, people with disabilities and significant health needs simulations, and pet friendly simulations.
Question: Have you asked hotels to shelter? That worked well for hurricane `Iniki.
Answer: We’ll discuss that. We have included persons with disabilities in the planning process to give feedback on the plan and got great feedback.
Here are pictures of the simulation. Participants reported that people were really stressed out! It was a great experience. Once we have the plan, we need to exercise the plan.
Since we don’t have money from the Legislature, we have a hub approach. We have to start with one. Generators, communicators, cooking kitchens. Twenty years from now, we won’t have a HUB shelter – they will all be HUB shelters.
Supplies that will be initiatives for focus. May have oxygen available, need other people to step up. Other equipment may be purchased by other agencies. Compact refrigerators, generators. Need generators to feed all the people. Cement pad and fence with secure storage in the bottom. Looking for secure storage first : 20 foot containers like the 20 foot containers from FEMA. Transfer switches are needed. Generators cannot be plugged into any buildings. Put in transfer line first, and then get the generators. Kauai has 13 old generators from 1992, and they were rusting away last year. Over $150,000 to revamp and work.
Question: Bring the food with you to sustain your family.
Answer: That’s post storm. Five to seven days in the classroom. This is after the storm.
How heavy is a hospital bed? Too heavy to move to the shelter. There will be some hospital like beds in some shelters.
Question: There are no cots to sleep on?
Answer: There will be no cots available.
We are looking at private buildings to do shelter in place or in home.
Typical shelter: show photo of single family home.
Hurricane shade cloth, filters, screens, shutters.
Short break – then move to groups at 10:35 a.m.
