Puerto Rico Earthquakes 2019 - 2020
Special
needs covers quite a diverse spectrum of conditions. For those with
mobility challenges special needs includes prosthetic limbs, canes,
crutches, walkers, scooters and various kinds of wheelchairs. That
means that if the person is to be evacuated arrangements have to be in
place to bring the device or devices. For people using powered devices
any responders doing a wellness check would need to consider how to
keep the device running. This also means that if a church or school,
for example, is serving as a post-disaster distribution hub some
thought has to be given to not only getting the special needs person
to the hub, but providing power to the device.
For people with
respiratory challenges such as emphysema oxygen re-supply is critical.
For people undergoing periodic treatment such as dialysis the
priority becomes getting the person to an establishment that can
provide such services.
There is a bewildering collection of
food sensitivities and allergies: among the more common dietary limits
are animal products (fish, meat and eggs), lactose (dairy), additives
(often synthetic colors, but many other items), sugars (often
fructose, especially from fruits, but quite a number of variants),
tree nuts, gluten (grains) and so on.
Then there are
requirements for medications - a popular example would be diabetics
who need insulin.
We suppose some thought should be given to
what could be done for people addicted to tobacco, narcotics or
alcohol.
Maintaining even a highly secure and confidential
database to support such special needs is a situation just ripe for
abuse. People with special needs did not cause the earthquake - they
ought not to die afterwards due to poor planning.
of
Recommendations - People with
special needs