CONSOLIDATED NOTES FOR 2007 ACTION PLAN (GOALS 1-3)

GOAL 1

K1          Reword to “all public shelters shall meet the minimum ADA requirements for Level II shelters”.

K2          Combine OBJECTIVES 1 & 3 and reword.

K3          Change wording from level I to “Level II”.

M1          Add “ADA” to minimum requirement.

M2          Add the word “egress” to the wording.

H1           Add “ADA” to minimum requirement.

O1          Use simple words:”exit, entrance, in, out”.

OBJECTIVE 1.1

K1           Insert “all buildings or sites” in place of schools.

K2           What is meant by “hardening”?

K3           Replace the word community with “emergency evacuation”.

K4           Review use of all terrain chairs at non ADA compliant sites.

M1          Include “UH and community colleges” in the plan.

M2          Spell out ADA.

KON1    Add to wording “other locations’, private schools, county buildings, community centers, etc.

H1         Add “other facilities (private, community centers, etc)”.

O1         Used as emergency evacuation centers.

O2         State & County facilities.

O3         Split Objective 1.1 DOE facilities / other facilities.

OBJECTIVE 1.2

K1         Insert “upgrade current emergency evacuation sites that are not ADA compliant”.

M1         Be more specific to the site.

OBJECTIVE 1.3

K1           Include occupany plus 20%.

K2          Tax credits to private care facilities for retrofitting their own facilities with their own funds.

K3          Use of public funds for retrofit of private facilities.

M1          Add “county buildings and facilities” to the plan.

M2          Minimum requirements should be 120-130 %

KON1    Add “all homes to be accessable”

H1         Add to wording “county & federal buildings”.

H2         Add in Note: “pertains to gov’s administrative directve”.

H3         Add “to include all hardened structures:.

O1         Add “all newly constructed state buildings”.

O2        “Accessible per contractor working with special needs owner”.

OBJECTIVE 1.4

K1        Currently no trained staff for Level II shelters.

K2        Look at evacuees in the general population shelters to assist in Level II shelters.

M1        Add “level II” to the wording.

M2        Insert “DOH shall provide training”.

M3        Also “use other methods of training”.

M4        Add words, “approved by American Red Cross”.

M5        Also add “participate in exercises”.

H1        Governor’s office to direct departments.

H2        Assign all state employees in the event of a disaster under Gov’s directive.

H3        Add ” how to respond to needs”.

H4        Provide funding to the organizations that do the training.

H5        Red Cross to attach module to CNA training.

H6        Need to emphasize cultural sensitivity if Red Cross training.

H7        Have Aging Disability Resource Center (ADRC) do the training.

O1        To include people with disabilities to go thru Red Cross training towork in shelters.

O2         Add Red Cross to be the lead for Level II shelters.

GOAL 2

K1         Add another OBJECTIVE to include tax incentives for builders, developers to plan to use potential shelters.

K2         Add “residential homes”.

M1         State why we want to shelter-in-place. (Stable, consistant, familiar environment).

M2         Cite a study to support the new statement.

O1         Add “every community”.

OBJECTIVE 2.1

K1          Replace the word facility with “structure (home, building, etc)”.

M2          Add the word “home”.

H1         Offer grants to offset costs to private owners.

O1         “Ensure provision of”.

O2         Include grants for private facilities.

OBJECTIVE 2.2

K1         Site visits can be requested from SCD.

H1         Include “encourage care home facilities to work together in an event”.

O1         Include retirement homes.

OBJECTIVE 2.3

K1         Community pitch in to help spread the word.

K2         Change HRS to give tax credits to private care facilities.

M1         Public awareness campaign should consist of —

KON1   Date the objectives.

KON2   Emergency readiness is more important because we have more smaller disasters.

H1         Stress shelter-in-place.

GOAL 3

K1         Shorten Goal 3 wording – “Increase the number of emergency evacuation shelters to support Level II individuals”.

M1         Find out percentage of level II shelters.

M2         Establish a goal for level II increase by a timeline.

M3         Add “as funds become available”.

M4         Create a timeline.

M5         Create a program for funding level II shelters.

H1         Put “increase” at the beginning.

O1         Clarify centers.

OBJECTIVE 3.1

K1          Add Red Cross to list of agencies.

KON1    Add “medication”.

O1         Add “accessable toilet facilities”.

O2         Reword “medication”procedures.

O3         Only have 30 day supply of medications.

OBJECTIVE 3.2

K1         Initial Level II shelters be located close to hospitals for support.

K2         Designate emergency personnel to man Level II shelters.

K3         Add Red Cross to list of agencies.

K4         Add Medical Reserve Corps to list of agencies.

M1         Offer training program to serve level II shelters.

M2         Establish staffing levels.

H1         Have incentives to establish network of staffing.

OBJECTIVE 3.3

K1         Add “minimum training level”.

M1        DOH should organize staffing levels.

H1        All agencies & organizations willing to staff.

O1        Have an incentive program to encourage volunteers to staff Level II shelters.

OBJECTIVE 3.4

K1        Add “voluntary registry, just a list of needs”.

M1        Have local organizations provide input about special needs people in their communities.

M1        Local community identifies special needs.

KON1  Eliminate objective entirely.

H1       Contact all appropriate agencies (county/state) ie: office of aging

H2       ”Identify geographically”.

O1       Add “for planning purposes”.

O2       Follow Samoa’s model, “identify villages”.

OBJECTIVE 3.5

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

K1       Build more shelters for tourists using funds from tourism industry.

K2       Need to add by dates to all OBJECTIVES.

K3       Voluntary pre-registration with a signed consent to release info.

K4        Have shelter registration forms available to those that want to fill it out prior to evacuating to a shelter.

K5        State incentive (tax credit) for pre-registration for shelters.

K6        Explore idea of soliciting private contributions for retrofitting public as well as private hardening projects.

K7        Tax credits for charitable contributions.

KON1  The medication prescription supply issue needs to be addressed

H1        ID people with special needs, ie: sticker on house.

H2        Have better documentation for service animals.

H3        1st Aid/CPR training to all shelter staff.

H4        Propose donation on tax returns for emergency preparedness.

H5        Ask Habilitat support

H6        County should build community center in Kau to be used as a shelter.

H7        Train ARC staff in Level II.

H8        Transportation for Level II.

H9        Do County plans first, by Counties, starting with Big Island.

H10      All schools that have special needs students should have warning lights/sirens.

O1         Add objective for an agency/organization to take lead & role.

O2         Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies for evacuation shelter retrofits.

O3         There is ashortage of staff at hospitals.

O4         Where are we going to address interpreters for deaf/hard of hearing?

O5         Make change to include DEM.

O6         Everything/part add ADA compliant

Maui opening session

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 22^nd. 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.

Hilo opening session

 Hilo opening session – delayed from 9 a.m. start (9:18 a.m.) 

Welcome – Francine Wai

Introduce self, Debbie Jackson – planner for DCAB, Danny Tengun and Ina Chan from Civil Defense (planning, sheltering), Robin Brandt taking notes and posting it on a blog site

Howard Marks, Developmental Disability Council, introduced 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.
• This is not a training workshop, a workshop because we are asking you to work.
• 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.
• Really need grassroots examination of the plan and improve it, specific to local conditions.
• We will accept and take all your comments.  Tell us if something is junk.  Give us your input.
• Appreciate you taking your time to spend it with us and provide your opinions.
• If you need to take a break to feed your meter, please do that whenever you need to do that.

  

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 Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Debbie will discuss agenda and ground rules.

Debbie:

• Hope everyone has 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 your workshop and around the state will be posted
• Some people have not used the blog – it’s pretty intuitive to use
• 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:

• Restroom locations provided
• Pick up handouts from outside table – telling what we will do and how we will do it

  

Brief ground rules

1. Respect each other.  Please put cell phones and pages 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 feedback
6. Feel free to express ideas others might not agree with.
7. Speak one at a time – we are recording notes and if more than one person speaks it make it difficult.
8. Ask about the assumptions – ask why.  We want your comments, we want your ideas.

PowerPoint to go over what the plan includes

Francine – Ask by show of hands, how many people have seen, heard or read this plan?  We’d like to have a whole room of hands of people who have read the plan.

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 agency 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 all counties (by various names, none in Honolulu)
• Association of the Blind
• Hawaii Services on Deafness

What we didn’t have is all of you.

Debbie

The workshop here and statewide has included monies for two representatives from each meeting to attend a meeting on O‘ahu on Monday, October 22nd.  Is anyone here interested in attending that meeting on Monday and express your interests from Hawai‘i?  Make sure to give me your name if you are interested.

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 get your kit, know where the shelter is and go.  People 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 – use canes or crutches
• People with mental illness or has mental retardation or other cognitive disabilities, people with traumatic brain injuries
• People who are blind or partially sighted  (Some people on O‘ahu noted that someone could wave down a bus during an emergency, 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.
• Additional people to add to the list:

  

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 Organization on Disability did a study and we think about 10 -13% (120,000 to 160,000 people) who may need 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 case managers 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 your 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 – others 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 to take action o the specific objective.

  

Danny

My job as the hurricane planner for the state, and shelter person, is to be responsible for general population shelters, special need shelters, pet friendly shelters and equipment that go in the Level II shelters.

Ina Chan will be writing the appendix.

Special needs are one part of the entire plan.  Ina will use all this input and other meeting to write that annex report. Early part of the next year we will have a draft.  In 3-4 years we will not have this plan.  When objectives are completed, they go away. We want everyone to know what was in the plan.

  

What level of care is needed for an “incident” – all hazards?

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 and 21 on the Big Island.  Most are in schools.  Look in the white pages of the phone book – it’s right there.

Out of the 29, 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 changing 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 equipment – 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. 

How many of you have an emergency care kit?  If not, shame on you.  If you cannot care for yourself, you cannot care for others.

Francine:

Will go through all seven goals rather quickly.  You will have more opportunities to make comment on each.

When we use the words “people with disabilities and special health needs” – 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 not coming to get you.  We are not going to be able to pick up and transport you, have blankets, batteries or other personal items for you.  .

1. PWD 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. 

1. 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.

1. 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.  Surveys show that people think that if there is a tsunami, someone will come to my house.  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.

1. Will only list people who live on the island at the time of the registration but that person may not necessarily be 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.  All shelters are Level II shelters.

Equip with equipment and medical support.

Debbie –

Goal 4:  An accessible public and professional emergency readiness campaign.  Go out and promote readiness.  Last month was National Emergency Preparedness month.

Accessibility means physical access. It also means accessible format to get the message out so everyone knows 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: Healthcare providers 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 is discussing shelter.

Debbie says what you are doing to prepare for emergency. 

Then you need to take action.

Goal 6: Notification. 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
• Reversible 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.

Are there any really general concerns about the plan that we can address:

Comment: Fantastic!  Really wonderful.

Response: This is still in the evolution phase and we have a long way to go.  When I first started learning abut this two years ago, I was quite depressed.  But we have come a long way putting these goals in place.  We need to have the goals and objectives; we won’t get money from the Legislature or Homeland Security funds.

  

Danny will discuss the shelters and where they are located.  Don’t shoot the messenger.

I inherited this problem.  It will be with us forever.  There is not enough money to give every one hope that there is enough shelter space for everybody.

Overview of the shelters.  1.4 million population and there are 27 shelters on the Big Island.  Other county facilities are used for brush fires, etc.  There is a shortage of 26,000 spaces.  (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?  Based on 35% for planning purposes – short 26,000 spaces on the Big Island. Bleak picture.

No funds for Level II shelters.  The President and Governor said do something but gave no money?  We came up with this solution: use classrooms for SPED students are being used 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 responsible for overall sheltering.  They are responsible for staffing Level I.  Pet friendly will be staffed by people by the Humane Society.  No one responsible for Level II shelters 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.

Question: The question was not repeated by the facilitator and the recorder could not hear it.

Answer: One of the things that we learned – the ARC of Hawaii brought a bus load of people. They said that there was a high level of anxiety in the simulation.  The home manager 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 HUB center, 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.

  

Oxygen s 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 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.

Question: Do you know much oxygen tank weighs and how long they last?  They don’t last very long. 

Answer: Plan now rather than two days before the disaster.  Government will not give you anything.  Red Cross will be there seven days.

Comment: With the cost of these tanks funding may not be available

Question: With such small amounts of support, what good is the shelter?  What is the shelter for?

Answer: Let’s discuss in small groups.

Other initiatives:

Hurricane shelter location brochure

Private sheltering program – churches, theatres, parking structures, condominiums association (no one living in a condo?), nursing home. 

If you have a group, 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.  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 retrofits Google 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.  Danny 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 can bring pets into it.

Showing a typical shelter– it has nothing in it.  One gallon of water per person for eacj day – that’s a lot of water.  No flush toilets.  You must do your own planning. 

People are leaving to put money in the meters.

Photos of things that he has in his kit for an emergency.  Hand can opener.  Shampoos, first aid kits. Miscellaneous things like duct tape, FRS radios, no landline.  FRS can talk to family up to 10 miles.  Meals – Meals ready to eat (MRE) or freeze dried.  Date on canned goods.  Water.  Water purifier.  Water treatment tablets.  You’ve got to start planning.

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 will count off.  1, 2, 3.

   

Short break – then move to groups at 10:35 a.m.

Picture from Kona Workshop

Picture from Kona Workshop

Picture from Kona Workshop

County Transportation Responses

Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities and Special Health Needs Workshop Information

The current Plan is found on the home page of the Disability and Communication Access Board at www.hawaii.gov/health/dcab/interagencyplan/index.htm.