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NCD panel collects local emergency‑management lessons for an inclusive toolkit
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Summary
NCD convened Florida disaster survivors, local independent‑living centers and emergency‑management actors to inform an FY26 toolkit aimed at making state and local preparedness plans inclusive for people with disabilities; speakers detailed shelter, FEMA and transportation gaps and promising county practices.
The National Council on Disability used an Orlando session to gather lived experience and local practice examples to shape an upcoming emergency‑management toolkit for states and municipalities.
Jamie (NCD staff) framed the project as an FY26 deliverable to help jurisdictions prepare for increasingly frequent extreme weather and ensure plans include people with disabilities. Panelists described gaps at multiple stages: evacuation, sheltering, recovery and housing replacement.
Al Selby, a Broward resident and disability advocate, recounted severe flooding during Tropical Cyclone Eta and how special‑needs shelter eligibility and family constraints prevented him from using county special‑needs shelters: he described being unable to evacuate his minor children to accompany him and being stranded without food, paratransit or emergency vehicles for roughly 2½ weeks. He emphasized that special‑needs shelter policies that require a single caregiver to accompany a registrant can make shelters unusable for many families.
Becky (facilitator for a consumer named Fred) and other independent living center staff described FEMA registration and inspection challenges for disaster‑damaged homes, gaps in FEMA award formulas versus contractor estimates, and long local waitlists for nonprofit recovery funds. Kim Dittman and other panelists noted improvements in Pinellas County — including proactive registries, paratransit coordination and special‑needs shelter adaptations — while urging better outreach and sustained funding for Centers for Independent Living, which often do unpaid or under‑reimbursed disaster response work.
Public commenters echoed the need to include nonvisible disabilities (including obesity, mobility and communication needs), to ensure hotels and temporary housing are truly accessible, and to fund local disability organizations capable of immediate post‑disaster response. Panelists recommended NCD: (1) promote a designated disability‑focused point person in emergency management at state and local levels, (2) require routine outreach/registration that includes family composition and service animals, (3) provide guidance on FEMA application assistance and second‑tier specialized agents, and (4) document county best practices for registries and paratransit coordination.
NCD staff said the toolkit will prioritize practical, county‑level guidance and promising practices drawn from this panel and will recommend ways federal, state and local actors can better resource inclusive planning.
