From: Frieden, Lex M. [mailto:lfrieden@bcm.tmc.edu ]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 10:08 PM
Subject: RE: Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike post five days: We got power on at our home a little while ago. About half of our city is still without power, and folks from Galveston to Beaumont will be without power (and many of them without homes) for a long long time. We lost a tree and a fence.
Amazingly, our cable and Internet access seems to have survived the storm without interruption - - or it was fixed before the power came back on here. Anyway, it is great to be able to charge your wheelchair in a place other than a hospital hallway or a grocery store shopping cart storage area. It will also be nice not to go on daily excursions in search of gasoline, ice and propane. Obviously, we followed directions and had our tank topped off before the storm hit.
My wife could be considered a kind of survivalist, so we were well stocked for this event. We have enough water remaining in bottles to keep us in good stead for about four more weeks. We have enough canned food and other non perishables to last us probably another six weeks. I have enough batteries to keep my radio going for about four more weeks - - but lanterns run batteries down really fast. We were just getting to the point that we had to go to bed before dark and get up at dawn. Now, thankfully I can resume my 7:00 AM to 1:00 AM normal schedule.
Our neighbor has a generator, but we want to avoid storing flammable liquids, so we do not keep gasoline to run a generator. We have been washing dishes and clothing the old fashioned way, and we have been boiling water and cooking our food on the gas grill out back. We conserve our batteries by listening to the radio about 3 hours per day.
I just stopped for a second writing this message to plug in the chargers for my wheelchair, cell phone, lanterns, radios and my electric razor. If the power goes out again tonight, I will be ready, again. I guarantee you I will not risk sleeping upstairs and possibly needing the elevator for a few days. It will take me that long to reach for a light switch instead of a flashlight, and to close the doors and windows so that we are not air conditioning the outside.
During the last few days, I have been working with colleagues who were reachable by cell phone to organize recovery and relief efforts for people with disabilities. About 3000 people with disabilities were evacuated prior to the storm, and most of them are in an Air Force Hospital in San Antonio. Many of them will not have a home to return to - - ever. Actually, those people are being well cared for at this point. The people we are most concerned about are those young and old people with disabilities who were instructed to "shelter in place" by public authorities, and who stayed in their homes to weather the storm. Assuming they followed the instructions of the public authorities, they were prepared to survive using bottled water and nonperishable foods for three days. Many of them who have needs for power also were well stocked with batteries for an emergency.
Now, five days after the storm hit, most of those people have run out of water and food and batteries. If they try to call local emergency assistance numbers, like I did, they will get a busy signal, they will get put on hold indefinitely, they will get a person who tells them they have no relevant information, or they will be given a phone number, as I was, to an organization whose offices were destroyed by the storm. Calling FEMA will get you on a list for some kind of assistance later on, after they process the lists, but FEMA is unable to provide any local technical assistance information. Many people with disabilities, and probably others, are still in bad shape.
Interestingly, many of the people whom I have discovered need help are people who registered well before the storm on the 211 emergency assistance system. The system worked well for those people who lived in mandatory evacuation zones and who needed to be evacuated. I am not aware of anyone who was registered who was not evacuated by one means or another. Our metropolitan transit authority paratransit system, along with our emergency preparedness officials, did a great job with this task. However, there are approximately 11,000 other people on the 211 list who sheltered in place who have yet to be called to check on their well being, and I believe that is a disaster in itself. They were promised help in these circumstances, and nobody has even called to check on them.
Last night I was able to locate a volunteer who filled a 5 gallon gasoline can to take to a woman who uses a ventilator. Her gasoline powered generator was about to run dry. She would have expired early this morning, if we have not found gasoline and a volunteer to deliver it to her. Red Cross offered no assistance to her, and neither did any other local aid agencies.
All of my colleagues at ILRU have been about similar tasks - - rying to figure out how to help people who are in need. We are all reminded of the 3000 plus calls for help that we answered and responded to after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
I am currently trying to get funding to support an 800 line number and staffing to provide assistance to those people with disabilities who are trying to recover from this disaster. We would also like to have some funds to be able to assist people directly, by doing things like purchasing and delivering gasoline to them for their generators.
Thanks for your prayers. Wish our city well, Lex
Lex Frieden
Professor of Health Informatics
Professor of Rehabilitation
University of Texas at Houston
Senior Vice President, TIRR
Director, ILRU www.ilru.org
Professor of Rehabilitation
Professor of Community Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
2323 South Shepherd
Houston, TX 77019
(713) 520-0232 x124
(713) 520-5785 Fax
ILRU hosts resource site for durable medical equipment and other supplies
In an effort to assist Centers for Independent Living, Statewide Independent Living Councils and disability organizations in coping with the recent and impending hurricanes and other natural disasters, ILRU is making available a Disaster Relief Resource Wiki site for posting durable medical equipment and other supply needs and resources. You can access the site at http://disability911.pbwiki.com . If your organization has a need for equipment or supplies, i.e. durable medical equipment and medical supplies, please post your request to the site.
Organizations who have durable medical equipment or supplies to donate may also post information to the site. To post, you will need to login with the password or invite key: 911 and then select "Edit" at the top of the page. Complete instructions for using the site are available on the site's home page at http://disability911.pbwiki.com
If we can be of assistance, please call on us.
Richard E. Petty
Program Director, IL NET
Independent Living Research Utilization
ILRU at TIRR Memorial Hermann
2323 South Shepherd, Suite 1000
Houston, Texas 77019
713.520.0232 (Voice/TTY)
713.520.5785 (Fax)
Politics, the Economy and Budget Cuts Loom Large for People with
Disabilities
By Phil Pangrazio, ABIL Executive Director
We're one-third into 2008, but the year is shaping up to be unprecedented in terms of importance for our country. The race for the presidency will certainly continue to be the focal point and what an election cycle it has been so far! The race for the Democratic Presidential nominee has been as hotly contested as any Presidential primary in recent history. The candidacies of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have been historic with Clinton and Obama being the first ever legitimate (i.e. front-running) female and African American presidential candidates in the history of the United States, respectively. And for us long-time Arizonans, Senator John McCain, the recently victorious Republican Presidential nominee has once again put the "Great State" of Arizona on the map in terms of Presidential politics... remember our greatest Statesman... Barry Goldwater? Whether you like the Maverick McCain or not, it is pretty cool to have one of our own on the national stage again!
The weakening of the American economy has also been front-page news in 2008. The predatory lending and sub-prime loan debacles loom large over the continuing devaluation of the U.S. housing market, as does their subsequent affects on the banking industry and worldwide financial markets. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing $10 billion per month, and by some estimates, will likely cost our country between $2 and $3 trillion before their over... yes, that's trillion with a "T". Did I mention the price of oil recently hit $110 dollars a barrel and will likely go even higher! The State of Arizona budget deficit for the current fiscal year that ends June 30th 2008 is estimated at $1.2 billion. Next years '09 budget deficit may reach $1.8 billion. OK, enough with the, "sky is falling," but all of this has implications for people with disabilities. The presidential election and cuts to vital programs will affect people with disabilities for years to come. Budget cuts have been proposed at all levels of government... federal, state and local.
At the federal level, funding for Center's for Independent Living (CIL) has been cut for three straight years. This funding must be restored. Among many other things, CIL's provide to people with all types of disabilities, of any age, the information and tools they need to remain active in their communities rather than isolated in costly nursing homes. Refusing to invest in CIL's is a penny wise and a pound foolish!
At the State level, the Arizona Freedom to Work Medicaid Buy-in program, currently used by more than 1,200 consumers, has been mentioned as possibly being on the chopping block. Freedom to Work (FTW) allows people with disabilities to work, earn competitive wages up to about $45,000 annually, and retain vital Medicaid healthcare coverage by paying a share of the AHCCCS cost. Without FTW, many people with disabilities, especially those with long-term care needs such as personal assistance services, would not be able to utilize the social security work incentives and return to work. Cutting this program would eliminate opportunities for PWD's to lift themselves out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency.
At the local level, the City of Phoenix and other area cities are facing budget cuts too. Although spared for now, the River Rampage, an outdoor-adventure program for young people with disabilities, other adaptive recreation programs, advocacy programs for the disabled, and Dial-a-Ride programs have been mentioned as possible areas to cut.
Don't go unheard! Voice your support for programs that empower our brothers and sisters with disabilities to live independently in the community. And please, get out and always VOTE!
Consumer Alert--Potential Identity Theft Scam
Thanks to people in the community, NCD has become aware of a potential identify theft (phishing) scam that uses the NCD logo and other NCD information to solicit personal information and Social Security numbers, and suggests that NCD would pay for this information. This is not true, and responding to such an e-mail request from any party is a risk to the loss of personal assets and even your personal identity. This is a scam. NCD would never ask anyone for his or her Social Security number.
Please review the following valuable information from the Federal Trade Commission on how to avoid phishing scams and other schemes designed for personal identity theft. This section also advises how to register a complaint. Thank you.