What To Include In Your Plan

The following questions may be helpful in thinking about the issues that your plan needs to include:

• How will I arrange for personal care assistance if in-home care support is unavailable?
  
  
• How will I get food, water and other necessary supplies?
  
  
• If I am dependent on home-delivered meals, and deliveries are interrupted, how will I get food?
  
  
• How will I fill prescriptions for life-sustaining and other important medications, and replace vital personal equipment (e.g., hearing aids, wheelchair batteries) damaged or lost in the disaster?
  
  
• If I live in a group home or assisted living facility, do I know whether the facility has a disaster plan and is taking measures to support me in a disaster?
  
  
• Is there a designated person who will contact me to check on my status and help me to get the services I need? This could be a friend, family member, a personal care attendant or an agency.
  
  
• If you have a special need or medical consideration, please be sure to indicate that whenever calling for help. That way the emergency personnel can be most responsive to your needs.
  
  
• Pepco has an Emergency Medical Equipment Notification Program for customers who rely on electricity to power life-support equipment in their homes, such as respirators or kidney dialysis machines. This program provides advance notice of scheduled outages and severe weather alerts to customers who depend on electricity for emergency medical and life-support equipment. To enroll contact Pepco's Customer Care representatives at 202-833-7500 (V). There is no charge for this service.

Resources

Check out these websites that can assist
you in emergency planning:

Montgomery County, MD Advanced Practice Center (APC) for Public Health Preparedness
This site includes Plan to Be Safe materials available in 9 different languages, including English.

Be Ready. Make A Plan.
Download an emergency plan form, get your local emergency preparedness hotlines, and view "Get Ready" to guide you through the basic steps that you and your family need to take to be prepared for emergencies.

Montgomery County Emergency Planning
Preparedness for terrorism and other emergencies.

Pepco
Pepco's Storm Center for outages and emergency preparedness.

Center for Disability and Special Needs Preparedness (DPC)
Works to ensure that all individuals are included in the development and implementation of emergency and disaster plans.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Find information on declared disasters and emergencies, how to protect your family and property, what to do after a disaster, and how to apply for assistance.

Job Accommodation Network
Emergency Evacuation Procedures for Employees with Disabilities

Maryland Department of Disabilities
Emergency Preparedness Initiative for Individuals with Disabilities in Maryland

National Organization on Disability (NOD)
Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI) ensures that emergency managers address concerns and that people with disabilities are included in all levels of emergency preparedness - planning, response, and recovery.

National Weather Service
Find information on forecasts, observations, climate data and much more for your city and county as well as a list of Emergency Alert System (EAS) Event Codes.

Preparing an Emergency Evacuation Plan
Plan developed by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services.

Tips for First Responders
The tips contain quick, easy-to-use procedures for assisting persons with disabilities during emergencies as well as during routine encounters.

U.S. Access Board
Resources on emergency evacuation and disaster preparedness.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Disaster Relief Information - Managing Anxiety in Time of Crisis

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