Haiti’s Disaster & Oakland’s Disaster Plan

Listen: 28 min

In a natural disaster like the Haitian earthquake, people with disabilities suffer the highest death rate. Moreover, for every person killed, three more are likely to become disabled.

We talk to Portlight Strategies, a grassroots group providing supplies and support for disabled Haitians.

Paul Timmons & friend with hospital beds

& other supplies ready to load.

We also talk to Karla Gilbride,

an attorney from

Disability Rights Advocates,

whose settlement* with the

City of Oakland brings

people with disabilities

firmly into Oakland's

planning for disasters.

What helps prevent death and injury to those who live

disability during an emergency? How can we support Haitian people with disabilities after an earthquake that killed two hundred thousand people?

Adrienne Lauby and Shelley Berman

pose the questions.

wheelchair with seat

repaired with a lawnchair

photo from: hishandsforhaiti.org

DRA Logo

Local shoe drive for Haiti:

A shoe drive for Haiti is accepting new and “almost new” shoes for the next two months. Askanez will collect them at 1317 San Pablo, any evening except Monday. The HUP Foundation (with local help) will ship and distribute them.

Wildfires, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes, oh my...

Are people with disabilities ready for a disaster?

Listen to program. 29 min

We talk to Ana-Marie Jones and Tracy Baker of Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster (CARD) about how to prepare.

Karla Gilbride, of Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley legal non-profit, also talks about their suit against both Oakland and L.A. for their lack disability access in emergency planning. The suit changes Oakland with
* The failure to conduct adequate surveys of the accessibility of potential shelter sites, resulting in a list that contains many inaccessible shelters;
* The failure to revise the City’s Mass Care and Shelter Plan from the 1980s to address the needs of men, women, and children with disabilities;
* The failure to make arrangements to provide prescriptions, medical supplies and equipment, or accessible transportation to people with disabilities in an emergency.

On August 12, the National Council on Disabilities released a Report on Emergency Management sub-titled "Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities." Here's some inclusive planning, except--oops -- they forgot prisons.

We can't ever forget that more and more people with disabilities, especially mental disabilities, are housed in prisons and jails. Many baby boomers live within the enormous U.S. prison-industrial complex and they aren't becoming more able-bodied as the months pass by.

Hosted by John Healy, with tips by Adrienne Lauby.