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 Fire
Special Needs Program
In the event of a major emergency or an actual disaster, citizens may have to evacuate their homes or they may find themselves without essential services like electricity, natural gas, and telephones for many hours or even days. While this may be a major inconvenience for some, citizens that have special needs may be faced with a life-threatening situation.
The problems encountered during the 2005 hurricane season have resulted in many program changes across the nation for emergency management officials in working with the special needs population. This includes citizens who are wheelchair bound, possibly bedridden, on continuous oxygen, blind, hearing impaired, or have some other condition that could result in a life-threatening situation. In addition, it includes citizens that lack transportation, especially during the daytime when other family members are away from home.
As a result, the Office of Emergency Management, part of the Fire Department developed a voluntary program to help any of our citizens who fall into one of these categories. As such, we would like to ask our citizens who have special needs to come forward and complete a voluntary registration form. The program has been successful and quite a few citizens have signed up. Only limited information is required and this data is maintained in strict confidence by emergency management officials, in accordance with state standards.
When received, the registrations are grouped by where you reside in the City. If an emergency occurs in a certain area, we can identify which citizens with special needs live in that area and may need some type of assistance.
This program is on-going and if you would like to enroll, or if you would like additional information on this important program, please stop by the Office of Emergency Management, located in the fire station, and contact Gary Woppert , the Emergency Management Coordinator. You can also contact him by telephone at 653-9140, extension 379, or send e-mail via the link provided.
An enrollment form can also be downloaded by clicking on the link provided.
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