Opening Doors — Who Will Respond to These Personal Emergencies?

Large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the recent earthquake in Haiti have heightened our awareness of the need to prepare for such community emergencies and their aftermath.
In our country, FEMA is the federal agency charged with coordinating the nationwide network of regional, state and local emergency management operations. While their message to each citizen is “to be informed and make a plan,” this national network is in place to provide a safety net for those circumstances that have the potential to overwhelm individual initiative.
It is not, as we have learned, a perfect system. And though this safety net depends to a great extent on systems and procedures established by advance planning, the unique challenge of a particular event may necessitate volunteers stepping forward to cover the gaps in services.
The 2010 snowstorm in Cape May County has generated many stories of neighbor helping neighbor, at least until planned community solutions had time to kick in.
But what of the unique, individual emergencies faced by those who experience a life-changing disability?
No amount of advance planning can prepare an individual or a family for the immediate response needed when a child is born with special needs, a spouse or parent suffers a debilitating stroke or degenerative condition such as ALS or Alzheimer’s, an individual experiences a spinal cord injury.
What may have been chosen as adequate or even excellent medical insurance under ordinary life circumstances suddenly appears to have critical limitations.
How will a home be modified for accessibility for the family member who unexpectedly is coming from the hospital in a wheelchair? Who will provide or pay for transportation to recurring dialysis appointments? Where will the funding come from for assistive technology not covered by insurance?
Certainly there are community agencies that assist with these needs. But with budgets and resources increasingly stretched, these agencies can only do so much. Increasingly, volunteer organizations and initiatives are being asked to fill the gaps.
The impending challenge is that aging volunteers largely man many of these efforts. Over and over, when I reach out to these various community groups, I hear the same heartfelt concern that their numbers are dwindling and that a younger generation, for many societal reasons, does not seem to be stepping up to replace them in adequate numbers. If this trend is not reversed, who will provide the needed services that these voluntary groups so selflessly support?
Though National Volunteer Week has already passed, Emergency Preparedness Month presents an opportunity for us as individuals and as a community to examine whether we are doing all that we can do not only to be ready for community disasters such as hurricanes and snow storms but for the personal, life-changing emergencies that our neighbors may experience.
Cape May County prides itself on being a small, close-knit community. Are you and I doing all we can do to help the most vulnerable in times of personal as well as community emergencies?
DID YOU KNOW?
• The Cape May County Board of Freeholders is hosting a Hurricane Preparedness Conference on Tues., Sept. 21st from 10 a.m. to noon at the County Administration Building, 4 Moore Road in Court House. The conference is free and open to the public
• The New Jersey website www. registerready.nj.gov enables individuals with special needs to sign up on the Special Needs Registry. (Registration can also be made by phone; just dial 2-1-1.) This registry will be used by local first responders to assist these individuals in an emergency situation
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s website www.ready.gov offers comprehensive preparedness information for people with disabilities and special needs, including a checklist of supplies for emergency kits in case of an evacuation
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website www.fema.org has information on Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs
• The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes website www.flash.org offers “flash cards” on disaster preparedness for people with disabilities and special needs. (A supply of these cards is also available in the lobby of the CMC Administration Building)
• The Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities sponsors a website www.disabilitypreparedness.gov that assists in personal preparedness planning
• The National Organization on Disability website www.nod.org contains a section on their program, the Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI)
Pierson is the Coordinator of the Cape May County Office of Disability Services