OT: Find myself wondering how DS would fare in a disaster....

[SueM in MN]

They do have a plan if the buildling has to be evacuated in an emergency-say a fire-and the plan of where to put all the residents in a nearby facility. What I'm not sure of is the 'whole corner of the world unsafe' plan, if they have one at all. And pulling this off quickly, especially if we had to get out of the area entirely could be a nightmare. If it's just our building we could just wheel them, the alternate is only a few blocks. But out of the area-oy vey! Not that hurricanes are a real threat to us, mostly just flooding up here. But something can come up and with the world today the odds of 'something' happening just seem to be going up. I do plan on bugging the administration next week, I get a kick out of that anyway However I'm on the bottom of the totem pole at work, I just take care of the kids....

I am higher up the totum pole where I work, but wanted to point out that most of the higher up the pole people (at least where I work), realize that we are all balanced on that pole together. And the lower people are most important; without them the whole thing falls apart.

Anyway, I don't think that there was a lot of thought of anything so catastrophic happening in one area. I'm in Minnesota, so we're not going to get any hurricanes either. The charge before was to look at things that were likely hazzards in our area. It sounds like there was not a good plan there for a hurricane (which was likely to occur), much less for all the things that were less likely.

 

[welovedis]

Thanks for the responses and thoughts on this subject. DH and I consider ourselves pretty much prepared for disaster situations, he was trained thru a local program to assist the deaf members of our community in a disaster since we have a large deaf population here. However, it was one of those things that we didn't worry about too much.

This weekend we are purchasing some supplies to keep in the house and going to set up a plan in case of a disaster, natural or otherwise. We are also going to contact DS' school in a week or 2 and find out what their policies are with they go into "lockdown" mode or where our DS would go in an emergency at his school. That way we can plan ahead and also start talking to him in little bits about what might happen.

It certainly has me thinking and talking about it with friends, neighbors & family members. I've got my elderly mom more than an hour away and now she is, slowly, thinking she should have some type of plan in place too.

Thanks again for the responses, it is definitely food for thought!

 

[Earstou]

Our local support group sent this link today http://www.unlockingautism.org/ . UnlockingAutism is helping families with ASD kids affected by Katrina, and you can also donate through this site.

I, too, wonder how my son would handle such a situation. We were grocery shopping once when a van caught fire two spaces away from where we were parked. I discovered this as I was leaving the building, and my son saw it before I could do anything. He fell apart, and I had to go back into the store and sit down with him. People were staring at him because he was crying and yelling, afraid that our car would burn up, too. Grocery shopping is very hard on me due to my own disability, so I really needed to leave. But, even with the fire out, I couldn't get my son to budge. I finally told him the firemen would stop us if it wasn't safe to go to our car, and since he admires firemen, he allowed us to leave. It was still difficult for him, but we made it to the car.
Tornadoes are what I worry about, living in tornado alley. I have an area prepared in the basement, with flashlight, radio, blankets and water. I think after this, I will be adding more!!

 

[Andrew Bichard]

Link to experience of disabled person from New Orleans

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/news/btn/rox_neworleans1.shtml

Andrew

 

[arminnie]

I think that the real lesson here is to BE AS PREPARED AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

Obviously many of those affected were not capable (for many reasons) of helping themselves or their loved ones. This is NOT a reprimand of them.

But for those of you that are taking care of special needs individuals, it is very important that you ask yourselves these questions NOW not later. Many people make elaborate plans on how to have a trip to WDW. The same time of pre-planning thought needs to be invested in catastrophe planning - though hopefully you won't have to use the plans.

Yes, it would be extremely upsetting to some disabled children and adults to have their routine disrupted, but you do want to make sure that they will be alive. Hopefully you can get a routine established for them later but in the immediate time they need to be kept alive and on meds.

I have an elderly friend (almost 80) in New Orleans who has a special needs son. He is almost 50 and has severe cerebral palsey. He can sometimes use a walker but only for very short distances (think feet not yards).

Fortunately she had made advance plans. Her son lives in a group home with several other young men and has for about 5 years now. He loves it there. He visits at home on the weekends.

The home (operated by rest care) had a plan in place to take care of the men who live in the home (6) . They were evacuated on Saturday to northern LA and all are comfortable and safe. Yes - they are disturbed by this disruption but they are SAFE. They left at the first mention of a problem - not Sunday, not Monday, not Tuesday after the storm.

My friend who is on oxygen also left on Saturday - no waiting around. She is safely in Texas and is making plans to get her son transferred to a home near her.

Is that perfect? No, but they are both alive, safe, and did not have to go through horrendous physical hardships.

I truly respect those of you that are care providers. Bless you all.

 

[TiggerCate]

I am jumping on this thread late (haven't been on the board in a couple of weeks). I practically have anxiety attacks thinking of how I would be able to handle these situations with my ASD DS. We don't have hurricanes, we have earthquakes, so luckily I probably wouldn't need to try to sit on a roof with him. I can't even imagine keeping my kids kept in one place (including the toddler) like a roof or a shelter. I have already decided that I could never go to a shelter- I'd rather have us all sleep in our van first- at least I could lock my son in with us!! My DH heard an awful story from the Superdome of a woman whose autistic son freaked out and ran away from her because of the chaos- and she hadn't seen him since. I have been so sad thinking about that, because I could completely imagine being in her shoes.