Senior Residential and Assisted Care Living

Is senior residential living or assisted living in your future?  Please put Emergency Planning on your list of features you expect from such a facility. They are required by state law to have a Plan and practice it annually. You can ask a facility’s marketing manager “Does this facility have an Emergency Plan?  May I see it?”  Better yet, ask for a copy you can take home and read leisurely.  Let the marketing manager know that the emergency preparedness of their facility is every bit as important to you as apartment lay-out, meal quality and activities.  

Emergency Plans

We each need a Plan to inform our appropriate preparation, manage our involvement and gain/share know-how.  Do you/your household have an Emergency Plan?

In addition, your neighborhood, congregation, council area, or city may have an Emergency Plan. Find out. Take an interest; ask to see it. You are not asking for the purpose of challenging anyone, but to show genuine interest. 

Does the Plan address your needs as a senior or someone with Access & Functional Need?  Is the Plan regularly practiced?  If your needs are not included in the Plan, it is unlikely they will be practiced in a drill.  And if not practiced, how likely is it that your needs will be addressed in an actual emergency?  

If you are able, consider asking how you can help with the planning and the next practice.  Getting involved is a way to lend a hand and to assure your needs are included. 

Networking is Vital

Regardless of the type of emergency event, or what response it requires of us – On-Foot Evacuation, Auto Evacuation, or Sheltering at Home -- NETWORKING is vital for us.  It builds warm, wonderful relationships in our everyday life and in a crisis it saves lives.  

Do you have rapport with some of the younger, stronger neighbors on your street?  Neighbors you could approach about your vulnerabilities and concerns regarding a large-scale disaster or even a local emergency?

If you lack that rapport, now would be a perfect time to cultivate genuine neighborly friendships.  Do you bake?  Make soups?  Repair things?  Babysit?  Do you have a veggie garden that allows you to share your harvest?  Give it some thought.  How could you make genuine outreaches? 

Information Resources

I want to urge you to be a frequent visitor to the Utah Commission on Aging website.  It is weighted with marvelous information and resources that aid and inform every part of an aging life and it is useful for Access & Functional Needs matters.  You will want to go back to this resource time and time again.  The website is “Utahaging.org”.  

Our state has an extensive Emergency Preparedness library: “BeReadyUtah.gov”. They have a website and a You Tube channel.  Be certain to checkout their BUZZ series of very short (less than 90 seconds) and entertaining Tips.  

The American Red Cross also has Preparation, Response and Recovery information.  

Check out my BLOG for a variety of short, educational articles:  PrepareToRespond.blogspot.com

 

Our pets are dear. For many of us, pets are family. 

PET KIT: This is such an important topic. Make sure each pet has a tag with your identification. You must bring pets in carriers to any gathering/shelter environment – another use for wheelies as part of your kit. 

Pets also must have leashes.  Include pet medical records, (especially proof of immunization). Should you end up in an American Red Cross shelter please know they permit only legitimate service dogs inside shelters. 

If you are a pet owner, I suggest you join w/other pet owners in your locale to create a Pet Emergency Response Plan.  This would involve having a safe place for pets adjacent to your human gathering location/shelter.  No one is going to set this up for you. This will only occur as a result of networking, pre-need.  

Seasonal Supplies and Comfort & Entertainment

Some of your supplies will need to change with the seasons.  

SEASONAL: Include a change of clothing in your essentials: Package seasonal clothing and other items separately so you can swap out one season for another easily as temperatures change.

Personal Hygiene

PERSONAL HYGIENE: It can boost your morale to feel as fresh as possible but think twice before using much water for that purpose, if you have only brought 1 gallon per day. (This is a good reason for bringing extra water).  A large travel kit could work nicely for hygiene. Pre-moistened towelettes are so helpful in emergency conditions and don’t require “spending” your precious water supply. 

Medications and First-Aid

MEDICATIONS: In a serious disaster, it may be a while before pharmacies are open and stocked to meet refill needs. You must include an adequate supply of your medications in your kit, not merely enough for 96 or 120 hours. You can accumulate an emergency supply by re-ordering your 30-day meds after 3 weeks or your 90-day meds after 75 days (or as soon as your drug insurance will allow). However, some meds do require the full time period before refill. Pack extra eyeglasses and/or contact lenses.

Prepare with Food

During the early response period following a major disaster, only those who have prepared an emergency food supply will have the certainty of food.  

Snacks are best used as treats, not the entire emergency diet, but they are vital supplies in your kit and will sustain you and provide basic energy: Granola, protein bars, nuts, chips, preserved cheese spread, peanut butter, cookies, crackers and little restaurant size packets of honey, jam/jelly. More substantial emergency food boosts morale/comfort and provides more stamina.  

The Challenge of Getting Safe WATER to a Gathering Place

Water is more vital than food, because our kidneys begin to shut down after a few days without it. At a minimum the experts tell us 6.5 oz a day will keep our kidneys working, but you will absolutely want more for comfort and healthy hydration.  You must bring your water supply with you to your gathering place.  This is a prime reason to have a kit on wheel—water is heavy -- 8.3lbs per gallon. 

Water Suggestions:  At a gathering place you will have needs for water in addition to drinking. One gallon of water/person/day is the absolute minimum.  Consider cooking, re-hydrating food, hygiene, sanitation, first aid. Place water packets or bottles in all components of your kit. 

Wheelies & Sanitation

In a previous article, I presented my basic 96-hour kit that was wearable.  But I cannot carry toileting supplies, sufficient water, sheltering, appropriate seasonal change of clothes, sleep gear, mess gear, etc., on my body.  So. . .

I have added “Wheels” to create the primary components of my sustainable kit for 2 aging adults with health limitations.  I will be including suggestions, but they are not meant to overshadow your own ideas of what you might want/need in your kit.

I have pre-loaded 4 “wheelies”.  In a walking evacuation, we would each pull 2 carts pre-packed ready to roll.  They are intended for on-foot use only, not for lifting into a vehicle. I have practiced walking to my nearest gathering place dressed in my emergency outfit and pulling 2 carts along flat roads.  

Evacuation on Foot

On-Foot Evacuation is my primary concern for those of us who are aging; there is not much instruction for us on how to prepare to evacuate our home and walk to our nearest community gathering places WITH enough appropriate and essential supplies. 

Do you know the location of you gathering place?  As an example, the community of Canyon Rim in the city of Millcreek will gather at/on the grounds of Rosecrest Elementary or the Canyon Rim Academy grounds. 

Sheltering at Home or on Your own Property

(Excerpt from the "PRESENTATION: Three Response Strategies and Networking" post.)

Many of us would strongly elect to remain in our home, or at least on our own property in the event of a disaster. The key point: Is it safe?

A natural disaster or man-caused event could make us feel it is unsafe to leave our home unattended.  If it comes to a choice between safe-guarding your life or well-being, or protecting your home, please protect yourself. 

Evacuation by Auto

(Excerpt from the "PRESENTATION: Three Response Strategies and Networking" post.)

The most likely emergency that will prompt auto evacuation is a wildfire or quickly out of control series of house fires near you.  I saw that happen in Tooele just a few years ago.  

You must consider that flames could reach your home before firefighters could extinguish them. Your focus in such circumstance it to GET OUT IMMEDIATELY.

Sometimes, entire parts of cities get consumed so quickly, residents cannot safely exit with any belongings.  

PRESENTATION: Three Response Strategies and Networking

The information herein is useful to all ages, but is directed toward seniors -- because our age group suffers disproportionately more injuries and fatalities in disasters.

I can attest to this from personal experience in 3 Earthquakes and 3 Civil Riots AND from searching out Lessons Learned from each national disaster. 

In all disasters I have studied, missteps -- primarily, communication breakdowns -- were made among the professionals that cost senior lives. The most dramatic is the final report about the Maui fire, made public in October 2024, revealing that 75% of fatalities were age 64 or older.  It is heartbreaking.

However, the primary reasons our age group suffers disproportionately comes down to US.  First, many of us older people are often NOT prepared at all; or, second, if we have of a kit, it is likely insufficient and inappropriate for our aging needs; and third, most seniors are not networked with younger, stronger neighbors who care, living on their same street, or connected to community or religious groups committed to include them.

Essential Preparation can Save Lives and Property

Neighborly Network:  How vulnerable were you in our recent power outage? Was it because of your age, disability, physical limitation, living alone, or because you were unprepared that you felt vulnerable?  

To those in the Intermountain West: Were you suddenly, starkly aware that you were ill-prepared for the sustained loss of power and unseasonably cold temps?  Did your home/yard sustain damage?  Were you dependent upon others near-by?  

Avoid the Pain & Inconvenience of Power Outages

While You and I can’t prevent sustained electrical outages, we can Prepare to limit our pain/Inconvenience the next time it happens. 

For the most part, the three days my household was w/o power were not extremely “painful” because of preparation. This emergency was my opportunity to test gear and know-how and see if I could stand up to this challenge with my physical limitations.  I’m including my Lessons Learned in the topics below.   

Sensible Preparation and Response

Refrigeration:  We kept fridge and freezers closed to conserve cold.  I waited too long to save many refrigerator items, (foodsafety.gov says 4 hours) but acted quickly enough (48 hours) to save frozen meats/fish, etc., with bags of ice in well-insulated coolers.  This was a high stress item for me.  I’ll do better next time.  

I now keep 10 bags of ice in my freezer units, along with pre-frozen packs, that I can transfer to coolers early enough to save refrigerator items as well as frozen food.  

SHELTERING IN PLACE for the AGING

As you may know, I am a long-time senior volunteer emergency preparedness and disaster response specialist.

In the face of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic or any public safety emergency, a practical action for aging adults is AVOIDANCE.  And, the most effective avoidance strategy is to shelter-at-home/self-quarantine.

You and I, as aging adults, are proving to be the most likely populations to develop severe COVID-19 infections that require medical intervention. The older we are, from age 60 forward, the greater our vulnerability.  Access your vulnerability based not only upon your age, but your underlaying level of health.