People on roofs in Grand Isle

[Galvestongirl]

O.K...so we all make mistakes, stupid or not.....now we put them behind us instead of criticizing we need to exercize some good ole human compassion!!! If I felt the same as some of you, then I would have put my children out along time ago for making a dumb mistake, instead, I showed some compassion and hoped they learned a lesson....yes, I think some of us are being a little too harsh with the "they get what they deserve" attitude.

[Josephine96]

forgive me for being in a cave.. but all 7 what?

[themusk]

Oh no you don't. We're risking the Mod-Wrath, but the people who are truly incapacitated have a care-giving infrastructure to assist them.

Quadriplegics are by any definition "truly incapacitated". The "structure" in place for quads in lower Manhattan after 9/11 was to ban their caregivers from coming into the area to assist them. I'm by any reasonable definition "truly incapacitated". The "structure" in place to assist me is "in case of emergency, you're on your own". My autistic friend down the hall here is by any reasonable definition "truly incapacitated". The "structure" in place to assist her with meals and medication on normal days is "maybe, maybe not". When she has asked her "care-giving infrastructure" for help putting together an emergency kit, they have ridiculed her and dismissed her request.

The reality is that there aren't sufficient services for disabled persons at the best of times, and that emergency planning for special needs populations, north and south, east and west, is unrealistic at best, nonexistent at its worst.

It has failed to keep up withg the times. Thirty years ago, most disabled persons lived in institutions -- nursing homes, state schools, state hospitals, and the like. Those who didn't most often lived with their families. Nowadays that same special needs population lives in the community, and quite often either the surviving family members, or the disabled person, has moved away (yep, disabled persons chase jobs, too -- either while they were able bodied, or as a disabled employee). Furthermore, thanks to adaptive technologies, the special needs populations who live independently these days include individuals who are much more severely disabled than in the past. Not only does this mean you can reasonably expect such persons to be intrinsically capable of less, it means such persons are often homebound, or nearly so, and isolated from the community. Neighbors not only can't be counted on to help them -- neighbors may not even know they exist.

I'm putting together a study, in fact (my return to hazards research as an independent scholar, it seems) whose objective it is to measure to what degree such a population is able to engage in preparedness activities.

And as to evacuation: there isn't anyone in America (yes, even those living in Nebraska) who are not at risk of a hazard that would require them to evacuate, often at a moment's notice. Evacuations are extremely common: I don't have my training material in front of me but I seem to remember they happen daily, around the country. It's not just an issue for hurricane country-- everywhere, people who need help to evacuate don't have it, because planners aren't planning adequately for the distribution and resources of today's special needs populations.

(By the way: I'll be helping my friend to put together that emergency kit the local developmental disability agency doesn't think their clients need. But not every DD (or physically disabled, or whatever) person lives next to a retired hazards person, so good luck, for her, isn't a subsitute for real planning).

[schmita]

"The "structure" in place for quads in lower Manhattan after 9/11 was to ban their caregivers from coming into the area to assist them."


Could you substantiate this? Because my husband, my cats and I were evacuated during September 11 (we lived one block east of the South Tower) and we cannot remember ever hearing of anything like this happening. Are you implying that there were quadraplegics left alone in apartments in lower manhattan? Everyone was evacuated. Period. Please do substantiate this and not with heresay or anecdotal evidence. Give me a link.
Thanks
irina
PS Everyone was banned too, caregiver or not.

[themusk]

"The "structure" in place for quads in lower Manhattan after 9/11 was to ban their caregivers from coming into the area to assist them."


Could you substantiate this? Because my husband, my cats and I were evacuated during September 11 (we lived one block east of the South Tower) and we cannot remember ever hearing of anything like this happening. Are you implying that there were quadraplegics left alone in apartments in lower manhattan? Everyone was evacuated. Period. Please do substantiate this and not with heresay or anecdotal evidence. Give me a link.
Thanks
irina
PS Everyone was banned too, caregiver or not.

This was in the zone where entry was restricted to residents only, but residents were not evacuated. The aides were excluded because they were not "residents". The story, about disabled persons caught in the zone, and how neighbors were trying to help, appeared in the New York Times sometime in 2001. Reading it is what knocked me back out of my sense that I had nothing much to contribute to the field anymore, spurred me to do some new coursework, and more recently to make plans to, as best I can given my current health limitations, try to do some solid publication-worthy research.

I can try to find the article in their archives (or in my achives, for that matter), but unfortunately at this point I can't guarantee that I'll find the article.

I'm sorry to hear that you were so immediately affected by that tragedy. I lived outside of the city for many years and know -- and knew-- many people who were working in those buildings and working and living in the surrounding area. I wept as I watched the towers fall from my safe vantage point here in the north, but I cannot even begin to fathom the horror experienced by those present there that day. Though, sometimes, I can catch a faint reflection of it in the eyes and in the voices of my friends who survived.

[gunner1551]

Please take this with a grain of salt. Poor people are not stupid, that is not the question here. The real problem is with people that were not prepared in the slightest way for a hurricane of this magnitude. Think of it this way.

Option 1) You have no car to get to a place of refuge. So thats why there were busses provided free of charge to take people to the shelters of last resort. So you pack up and go, hours in advance. Most likely you LIVE!

Option 2) You think my old house stood in Camille, so you decide to ride it out. The hours come and go and you board up your house. Its now about 6 hours before landfall. You still have time to get out, but you decide not to. You hunker down in your house and have some dinner and crack open a beer and think this is not goin to be bad at all. After all the winds are only 140 mph. Then the water starts to rise and the winds start to blow.......

I wont go any farther but you will get my point...... If you were trapped in your house and didnt even think ahead to have at the very least a axe or hammer to bust a hole in your roof after it was over, provided you had a roof over your head, there is no reason for ignorance in this case. Now coast guard and police have to risk there lives to come and save your sorry a$$. ( trapped in your attic )

I wonder if they thought of the people lives they would have to risk to come and save them.???

This is reality!!!

[gunner1551]

Did that come across as to harsh because I didnt get any replies