Image credit: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
“Disasters are always inclusive. Response and recovery are not, unless we plan for it.”
-June Isaacson Kailes, Disability Policy Consultant
Have you ever wondered how disaster planners figure out which needs to prioritize in a disaster? One way is through a tabletop exercise. A tabletop exercise is a facilitated discussion that simulates a disaster scenario and allows individuals and groups who might expect to be affected to talk through their emergency plans and the problems they anticipate facing in their response to the scenario at hand. This discussion is then used to generate an improvement plan, in which participants hold themselves accountable for making any changes found to be beneficial in a future real-life disaster.
On November 7, Douglas County Health Department in Omaha, NE, is hosting their second annual tabletop exercise specifically for individuals with access and functional needs and local organizations that serve them. At this exercise, “players” will respond to a flood scenario and discuss the unique challenges that individuals with access and functional needs may face in a catastrophic flood, with the goal of ensuring that all participants are aware of each other’s needs, resources, and responsibilities. Douglas County Health Department will then take the results of the exercise discussion and use them to build improvements into its own community emergency plans.
Douglas County Health Department’s focus on populations with access and functional needs is not accidental. In a disaster, such as a tornado or a pandemic, the question of who emerges unscathed is often determined by a person’s level of vulnerability going into the event. Many different things can leave someone vulnerable: In the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, certain age- and health-related factors made some people far more susceptible to serious illness, hospitalization, and death than others. In a tornado, on the other hand, individuals with limited mobility, electronic dependent medical devices, or barriers to receiving or understanding warnings may be at higher risk. Disaster planners, therefore, must consider how to account for the whole community, including people with access and functional needs, which are defined as anything that may limit an individual’s ability to protect themselves during an emergency.
Access and functional needs are also not rare. Mirroring national trends, in 2022, the CDC reported that 24.5% of Nebraskans 18 and older were living with some kind of disability.
Douglas County is also home to a diverse population representing dozens of unique languages and cultures, raising questions of language access to emergency information. Depending on the situation, a significant number of Douglas County residents could face significant barriers to their survival in a disaster. Exercises like Douglas County Health Department’s Access and Functional Needs tabletop exercise, though, help ensure that the whole community is represented in disaster response and recovery and has as equal and equitable a chance of survival as possible.
If you’re interested in participating in this exercise or contributing to Douglas County Health Department’s planning efforts for vulnerable populations, please contact Caleb Kuddes at caleb.kuddes@douglascounty-ne.gov.
Caleb Kuddes is the emergency response coordinator at Douglas County Health Department in Omaha, Nebraska. He has worked in public health for four years, and in that time has coordinated public health responses to COVID-19, mpox, rabies, and tuberculosis, while also providing support for numerous other emergencies and disasters. Prior to working in public health, Caleb spent seven years working in law enforcement and emergency dispatch. He lives in Elkhorn, NE, with his wife and three children.
Additional resources:
Nebraska Dept of Health and Human Services Emergency Response page with four things you can do right now to be prepared.
Ready to create your family’s own preparedness plan? See this site from Ready.gov.
