Heagele is a doctoral student in the Rutgers School of Nursing. She has completed 13 emergency-preparedness certifications through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association. Heagele recently published an article on disaster preparedness in the American Journal of Public Health, as well as an article in Forbes magazine.
Here is why Heagele thinks you probably aren鈥檛 prepared for a disaster.
1. Disaster Kit Checklists
Do you have a disaster kit in your home? If so, what鈥檚 in it? Heagele found research studies showing that there are over 70 different checklists for disaster kits online and the only thing all of them have in common is water.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e telling people they need to prepare for disaster, they do a Google search. And then they come up with 70 different check lists. People are going to say 鈥榃ho do I believe?鈥� 鈥榃hy aren鈥檛 they agreeing on this?鈥� This inconsistent message means people can鈥檛 trust the information, and it confuses them.鈥�
2. Disaster Preparedness Campaigns
Most campaigns advising people on how to prepare for a disaster are internet based, Heagele says: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a problem because there are huge portions of the population that either don鈥檛 have access to the internet, or don鈥檛 frequently use the internet, and thus aren鈥檛 being reached by these campaigns. These are usually the people who have the worst outcomes in a disaster.鈥�
3. Insurance Problems
For the elderly and medically frail, the risk increases. Heagele points out that some insurance companies only provide medication in 30-day supplies and, if a disaster strikes, patients may run out of their medication. Individuals on home oxygen may wind up in the hospital during disasters, because they use up all of their supply.
Heagele says: 鈥淢any people who have medication pumps or need ventilators, or on other electronic medical devices at home have a real problem in a power outage. If their battery backups die, they all wind up in the hospital. And insurance does not cover generators.鈥�
4. Medical-Needs Shelters
Medical-needs shelters are intended to provide shelter for medically frail people and their family or caretakers during a disaster or emergency situation. These shelters are intended to provide temporary care and housing for individuals with chronic medical conditions that require regular medical treatment that they can no longer get in their home due to the disaster situation.
鈥淚n New Jersey, during Hurricane Sandy, we only opened up a few medical needs shelters in the entire state. If you鈥檙e living in a city, and you don鈥檛 have a car, you may not have the ability to get to those medical needs shelters. New Jersey also opened them up about three days after the disaster hit, so at that point, people are already in the hospital. I think the medical needs shelters should be mandatory in all communities and opened before predicted disasters, instead of days after, to be sure that they have that service there.鈥�
5. There鈥檚 not a lot of intervention research on disaster preparedness.
There is a lot of assessment research in terms of disaster preparedness, that is, who鈥檚 prepared and who鈥檚 not prepared for a disaster. But there is very little intervention research. Intervention research, for example, looks at if individuals are provided with emergency kits and medical needs shelters, does this help save lives? So there is little research to rely on when those in charge of emergency preparedness are working to improve their strategies and tactics.
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