Day: November 15, 2015

EARTHQUAKE

Coping with the aftermath can be a disaster, too, for people with disabilities.

By Jim Hammitt

My God, this is the BIG ONE!” was my first thought as I was jolted awake by the roaring and shaking of the Northridge earthquake at 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994. My wife and I forgot about the luxury of a couple of extra hours of rest because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, as we faced the real possibility of being trapped and crushed in our brick-lined bedroom. It sounded as if the roof was coming off while the room …

DISASTER

If you have a disability, the forces of nature can be meaner to you than anyone else. But you can fight back. Be prepared.

By Douglas Lathrop

Floods, brush fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, riots – the last few years have seen more than their fair share of disasters both natural and man-made. In especially hard-hit areas such as Southern California, the jokes about plagues of locusts and Las Vegas beachfront property have long since worn thin.

Disaster-prone areas such as southern Florida and California are home to large concentrations of persons with disabilities, of whom increasing numbers are living either …

Fire, flood, earthquake … terrorist attack. Disasters, natural and man-made, turn our world upside down, inflicting suffering and death on all of us involved. For people with disabilities, coping with the aftermath of disaster can be doubly difficult. After the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and the hurricanes in the southeast, MAINSTREAM took a look at how people with disabilities fared, and what we can do to prepare. In light of the attacks in New York and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, these articles are worth examining anew.

Disaster:If you have a disability, the forces of nature can be meaner …