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Jun 29

Caregivers, Kupuna Must Plan Ahead to Survive a Disaster – Hawaii News Now

By Craig Gima AARP Hawaii

If you are a kupuna or caregiver, especially if you take care of someone with dementia, the time to prepare for a major storm or disaster is now, before a disaster happens.

Hurricane season started June 1 in Hawaii. But disasters here could also include tsunami, power outages and even an earthquake.

Preparation for a disaster involvespreparing and practicing a disaster planandstocking and maintaining a disaster supply kit.

Caregivers and kupuna need to come up with a detailed disaster plan that involves creating a support network of neighbors and friends. Family caregivers may not be able to reach a loved one in an emergency, especially during an evacuation. Caregivers of people with dementia will also need more than one person to watch over a loved one to help keep them calm and to make sure they dont wander away.

State Emergency Management officials are recommending you keep a 14-day supply of food for each person in the disaster supply kit. Thats significantly increased from whats suggested for the mainland and previous recommendations in Hawaii of three to seven days of supplies. The concern is that harbors could become unusable in a disaster and Oahu could run out of food before the ports can be reopened.

If you need to evacuate your home, dont assume that the nearest school will opened as an emergency shelter. Toby Clairmont, executive officer of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said that some facilities, especially older sites that had been designated as emergency shelters in the past, are being re-evaluated to see if they would safely survive a disaster. See if a relative or friends home in a safe area can be used as a back-up shelter and its a good idea to line up more than one back-up shelter in case the first one is not available.

Check your home to see if it is engineered to survive a severe storm and to see if it isoutside tsunami and flood zones. If you live in a concrete building on an upper floor, you may be better off to shelter in place during a storm or tsunami.

Here are other disaster preparation tips for kupuna and caregivers.

For more resources, click here.

See the article here:
Caregivers, Kupuna Must Plan Ahead to Survive a Disaster - Hawaii News Now

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