Centering the Disability and Aging Communities in Federal Emergency Response Efforts

As the United States continues to grapple with the ongoing devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, it will also soon face extreme seasonal weather. From fires in the Southwest and the West to weather vortexes and floods in the Midwest to hurricane season in the South and the Southeast, the United States must prepare for upcoming disasters within the context of a global pandemic. Powerful hurricanes, heavy downpours, flooding, intense heat waves, and other extreme weather emergencies can endanger public health and safety, cause widespread damage, and make social distancing and stay-at-home orders impossible to implement. As shown throughout the COVID-19 response, older people and people with disabilities often feel the disproportionate effects of poorly handled national preparedness efforts. Unfortunately, these individuals have often been excluded from response strategies and emergency management at the federal level, despite comprising more than 25 percent of the U.S. population.

The Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion (REAADI) for Disasters Act and the Disaster Relief Medicaid Act (DRMA)—two federal bills written with direct input from the disability community—are long-overdue opportunities to center disabled and older people in federal disaster response strategies.

Disabled and older people have historically borne the brunt of disasters

People with disabilities and older adults regularly average higher death and injury tolls in emergency situations yet find themselves at the mercy of volunteer and government responses that are unprepared, inaccessible, and often noncompliant with federal accessibility standards. For example, disabled people and older adults made up 77 percent of Camp Fire victims in Paradise, California; nearly 50 percent of Superstorm Sandy victims; and approximately 71 percent of Hurricane Katrina victims. Similarly, preparedness efforts fail other groups such as indigenous, Black, detained, and low-income communities, all of whom feel the disproportionate effects of inadequate planning and inclusion. While not an extreme weather event, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the same pattern of disproportionate devastation, with Black people in particular dying at more than two times the rate of white people. Continue reading.