American Red Cross
Disaster Services

Disaster Preparedness for People With Disabilities

PREFACE

Disaster Preparedness for People With Disabilities has been designed to help people who have physical, visual, auditory, or cognitive disabilities to prepare for natural disasters and their consequences.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Red Cross created a booklet titled Disaster Preparedness for the Disabled and Elderly. That booklet, which is no longer in print, served as the foundation for material contained here. In the last 12 years, new information has been published about disaster preparation for people with disabilities, and relevant documents, guidelines, and other materials have been reviewed and added, as appropriate, in this updated booklet.

Anyone who has a disability or anyone who works with, lives with, or assists a person with a disability can use this booklet. It contains information that can help you organize a personal disaster plan and includes plans for the care of service animals and/or pets during a disaster.

This booklet is designed with checklists and extra space for you or your helper to use to organize information that will help you prepare for a disaster. You may copy these pages from the booklet as needed to distribute or post somewhere handy.

If you have questions about any of the content or recommendations in this booklet, please contact your local American Red Cross chapter.

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