David Paulison Administrator, FEMA
National Council on Disabilities, Arlington, VA, April 23, 2008
Thank you for having me here today. FEMA is dedicated to building new partnerships and reaching out to new communities.
I often speak about the "engaged partnerships" that is part of my vision for a "New" FEMA. We recognize that FEMA can not and should not act alone. We need to work with our partners at every level of government. We need to reach out to the non-profit, faith-based and private sector communities for you involvement – as each of these groups plays an important role in helping the American people plan for, respond to and recover from disaster.
Building a lasting relationship with the disabled community involved both learning how better to help members of your community with our responsibilities as well as the role you can play in the emergency management system.
To reach out to new voices, we have taken a number of proactive steps.
First, the Post-Katrina Management Reform Act included a provision that allowed FEMA to hire a Disability Coordinator to better serve individuals with disabilities and special needs during emergencies. While this was a Congressional mandate, it was an action that FEMA welcomed. We realized after Katrina that we needed a better way to reach out to these communities and also to have open channels of communication so we could better understand their needs.
I know you have all met the experienced woman we brought on board last year to take a leadership role in FEMA in this position. Cindy Lou Daniel has met with you a number of times and is here with me today. She has impressive qualifications and experience at all levels of government in dealing with people with disabilities and special needs in the area of emergency management. Some of you may have known her previously when she served as an emergency management specialist at the National Organization on Disabilities. Cindy has also held positions at the USDA, in Fairfax County, VA, and on the Homeland Security National Task Force on Emergency Planning.
She is your first point of contact and I hope you take advantage of that fact. Rather than calling all different offices trying to find out who can address your concerns or answer a question, please contact Cindy directly and let her be your advocate. Take some time to talk with her today if you have a particular concern. This is a system that can truly thrive if you use it as its intended.
Our new focus on special needs communities, when combined with Cindy's efforts, are already bearing fruit.
FEMA has conducted aggressive outreach to State, Local, and Tribal communities to review, evaluate, and provide subject matter expertise to assist on all hazards preparedness, response, and recovery strategies to ensure that the needs of individuals with disabilities during disasters are incorporated into planning and exercise activity.
We negotiated the inclusion of national and local disability organizations as effective, real time partners in disaster exercise TOP-OFF 4 that included Guam, Oregon, and Arizona. Coordinated and managed the use of real persons with actual disabilities as players in the exercise. This enabled the exercise planners and participants to evaluate the actual problems encountered in evacuating, decontaminating, and accommodating persons with disabilities, their service animals, and their durable medical equipment. FEMA National Exercise Program is working with the National Disability Coordinator to make sure that all exercises, federal and state will have people with disabilities and special needs at the planning table and participating in the exercise. The exercise will be fully accessible.
In the wake of the California Wildfires, the Disability Coordinator was deployed to the Joint Field Office in Pasadena, CA. While there Cindy was able to: use GIS to depict demographics of individuals with disabilities and special needs in fire areas, ensure the needs of people with disabilities and special needs in the shelters were being accommodated, and work with the Joint Housing Task Force and housing team to ensure accessible housing was provided to persons with disabilities and special needs, among other activities.
We have also incorporated the special needs community into our national planning structure.
FEMA realized that the opinion and recommendations of the disabled/ special needs community needed to be recognized in the National Response Framework. We established a Special Needs Work Group, representing members of the interagency to review the NRF and propose recommendations to address special needs concerns. This group helped us to incorporate specific language into the NRF that clearly addresses the need to account for special needs populations prior to, during and after and incident by all levels of government, the private sector and NGOs. The group was essential in ensuring special needs considerations were included in the NRF, from the Glossary, to the Annexes for Transportation, Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing and Human Needs, Public Affairs Support Annex and Mass Evacuation Incident Annex.
This is just the beginning. Our Disabilities Coordinator and staff across the organization will move forward to address other issues and we hope to have many of these in place by the beginning of this year's Hurricane Season.
We are developing a template, checklist, and database of disability resources, and training for the FEMA Regional Offices and States on accommodating people with disabilities and special needs. Included in these new resources will be a durable medical equipment list to go out with logistic in a disaster to provide the shelters and disaster recover centers durable medical equipment for people with disabilities and special needs. There will also be material in alternative formats and interpreters (ASL and Language) in the shelters and disaster recover center.
FEMA is working with local disability agencies on emergency preparedness training for their community. We are also providing training to the state emergency managers and other emergency agencies on how to accommodate people with disabilities and special needs in a disaster.
We will develop so-called "go kits" that will be deployed in a disaster which will have assistive technology devices to help people with disabilities and special needs. In addition, we are planning a specialized service animal "go kit."
I am proud to say that this teamwork and commitment has been evident in recent months and years, and that FEMA remains dedicated to working with you as an "engaged partner" as we face the 2008 Hurricane Season together. FEMA has always had a firm commitment to serving people with disabilities and special needs during disasters.
None of us can nor should do it alone. Over the past year, we have truly stood together and today we are better prepared to work as one when disaster strikes. The proof of my words today will be in our actions. But I have seen great improvements not only in FEMA, but in how we work with you on a daily basis. Today I see a FEMA that is ready and willing to work at your side this year and in the future. I hope that you see the same bright future for all of us.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 11-Jun-2008 11:25:22 EDT