This is especially true when you need to consider the medical care concerns of loved ones with special needs. Many families don’t realize that in a disaster situation, the companies they contract with to help in the transporting of their loved ones with special transport needs may also have VERY large and profitable contracts with medical facilities that will get priority over the individual contracts for transport. This can mean that you mother or father, brother or sister wife or husband who is in frail condition be ‘accommodated as necessary’. The question then is: ‘Accommodated as necessary” BY WHOM? -- The transport company or the patient / loved one? NOW is the time to find that answer.
A way to help deal with such a emergency preparedness situation is to join together with other families in your area and do a collective disaster preparedness bargaining with a transport company concerning your loved ones with disabilities in a hurricane emergency situation. The price may be reduced if 3-4 families join together to negotiate a price. Also if the hurricane evacuation need should arise then there are many more in the group who will be calling for necessary assistance at one time. Additionally if the group can get together and do the collective research of where to stay in the possibility of a hurricane disaster. The research task will go much more swiftly with more people working on it. Better plans can be collectively made and there will be additional helping hands to be of support when hurricane prepedness is the issue.
An example of this would be to have 2-3 families join up together and reach and agree on a motel with handicap rooms available at a safe distance from the general hurricane paths. If the families makes arrangements with the motel a head of time, then the handicap rooms will be reserved for these families when needed for their frail – special need loved ones with necessary bathroom supports and barrier free access is necessary. The transport company will know that all the families are going to one location so the price will be cheaper and there will be family support for each other during the hurricane evacuation process.
One of the great tragedies of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy was the Sunrise Living Services Inc of
As a result of that incident and the nursing home death in another Gulf Coast nursing home, many families are determined that it is best for them to make their own personal disaster preparedness arrangements and provide the necessary care that will be needed during a hurricane situation.
If this is the case for you and your family, then it is important to start NOW to prepare for a hurricane with as much disaster preparedness information as possible, It is also important to have an emergency preparedness checklist to ensure that you have all disaster situations covered as possible.
Also it is best to negotiate hurricane evacuation contract price including the fuel or mileage charges at current prices or current estimated prices before the fuel prices hit the roof later when a hurricane is headed your way. True you may have to put down a deposit but it is well worth the piece to have peace of mind that can bring later on. It is also wise to see if a family member can transport with the loved one as a means of reducing disaster anxiety for everyone concerned. It also provide more individual attention and care to your loved one as well as help to reduce the staffing necessary in an emergency evacuation situation. This helps to free the company up to be of assistance to others and help cut their costs as well. Remember to remind them of the benifits that a loved one ransporting with the special needs individual can offer. This is a win-win-win situation for all concerned. The patient / xpecil needs person gets the love and attention they need and want, the company gets more help and support in an emergency preparedness situation, while reducing costs for everyone and the family / loved ones who have made the arrangemetns will know that the best plans they can offer under difficult circumstances have been made to help the handicapped person in a hurricane disaster. Everyone will have more peace of mind when the rains come and the winds blow.
I hope all who have special needs family members / loved ones will start now to prepare NOW for a hurricane situation whenever it should occur.
Nursing Home, Relatives Settle Rita Suit
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jK518EkzDL0HQN7Bdiri_aZU1jlw
HOUSTON (AP) — The families of all 23 nursing home patients who died in a bus explosion as they fled Hurricane Rita have settled their lawsuits against the nursing home that evacuated them, lawyers said.
Lawyers for the families and for Sunrise Senior Living Services Inc., of
Those who died in the fire were too frail to escape the bus on their own. Fourteen passengers survived.
"I would say our differences have been amicably resolved, and both sides are happy to put those issues behind them," said attorney Randy Sorrels, who represents some of the victims' families.
Spokesman Jamison Gosselin said Sunrise Senior Living had settled all claims against it. "This has been a heart-wrenching time for many people, and we certainly share their sadness," he said.
A federal investigation found the bus fire started when poorly lubricated wheel bearings overheated in the right rear well, igniting a tire. The fire spread to oxygen canisters in the bus's cabin, causing them to explode.
Victims and relatives of victims last year reached an $11 million settlement with the bus company, Global Limo Inc., and BusBank, the travel broker that hired it.
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