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People with disabilities in Colorado Springs were placed in danger and treated as an afterthought during the Waldo Canyon fire, according to a leading local disability advocate who is proposing a series of steps to better prepare for another disaster.
There were a number of things that didn t go well, said Patricia Yeager, CEO of The Independence Center, a Springs-based nonprofit that serves people with disabilities. A couple of things that didn t go well included alerts for people who are deaf, evacuations for people in wheelchairs, she said Tuesday. You can t ask someone to leave their wheelchair behind, and we had some problems at the Cheyenne Mountain (High School) shelter. We want to resolve those issues.
Yeager has invited emergency management officials from around El Paso County to an Aug. 30 listening payless auto rental fort lauderdale session with people with disabilities and their families to talk about what worked and what didn t during the fire to improve plans.
It s to be understood that we re going to have a lot of problems, she said. But I want the disability community to have an opportunity to talk about what worked and what didn t work because we re the ones I m hearing impaired so we re the ones that know. We can provide solutions and support.
Yeager also said she offered the city and the county as much as $30,000 to hire a disability expert for a year to help create disaster strategies and plans. She said she asked the city and the county to contribute money to the temporary payless auto rental fort lauderdale position.
Yeager addressed the letter to Waters, but the problems she identified involve other entities besides the city government. Yeager copied Mayor Steve Bach, the City Council, County Administrator Jeff Greene, county commissioners and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, in the letter.
While much good work was done by this community s first responders during the Waldo Canyon Fire, there were instances where the City fell short on their ADA (federal Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance responsibilities and people with disabilities faced unacceptable and, in some cases, illegal actions, Yeager wrote in the letter.
Captioning (on TV) was non-existent as the crawler at the bottom of the screen does not constitute real-time information In addition, the E9-1-1 system failed to notify not only people with disabilities but the general community. Both are unacceptable and the lack of deaf and hard of hearing individuals access to notifications that were available is in violation of FCC rules.
At one shelter, 5-6 people with significant intellectual disabilities were housed with their families who were taking care of them. Several nurses at that shelter payless auto rental fort lauderdale became uncomfortable and had them removed to an assisted living facility. At this same shelter all people payless auto rental fort lauderdale using wheelchairs were sent to assisted living center. This is contrary to the intent of inclusive sheltering.
The family of another woman who cannot move independently and needed an accessible bed called around to various agencies who either did not have a bed or refused to help until insurance issues were resolved. They were told that there were no accessible beds at the shelter. Even the Red Cross could not help them. They moved to a relative s small, inaccessible home where the individual spent three days upright in her wheelchair as a result. In the letter, Yeager said The Independence Center will continue to collect stories of what happened during the fire and share them with emergency planners so that the plans we develop together address as many issues as possible. payless auto rental fort lauderdale Contact Daniel Chac n: 476-1623 payless auto rental fort lauderdale Twitter @danieljchacon Facebook Daniel Chacon
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