June 1 was the official start to the hurricane season. In this episode, Cas Shearin, DRNC’s Media Strategist/Senior Writer, interviews Curtis Hill, Advocate for DRNC. They discussed how to be prepared this hurricane season. Preparation and knowing your rights, especially for the disabled community are critical pieces of information to know before disaster strikes. Don’t miss this great conversation!
Curtis Hill joined DRNC in April 2019 as an advocate for the agency’s emergency management and disaster relief efforts where he assisted people with disabilities affected by Hurricane Florence. Raised in Eastern North Carolina, he brings a personal connection to the community, as well as a wealth of nonprofit experience, to his role at DRNC. In his spare time, Hill is often seen marshalling collective action on community issues and advocating for local policy changes to advance the ideals of equity and social justice through various civic organizations in his community.
Learn how to prepare for a natural disaster, including hurricanes here Disaster Recovery Project – DRNC (disabilityrightsnc.org)
Listen to the podcast episode here
Transcript
Cass Shearon:
The content of this program is intended for people who are blind, have low vision, or have print disabilities. Hello, this is Cas Shearin for the North Carolina Reading Service. For the next half hour, I will be presenting the latest Legal Matters. Today’s Legal Matters is underwritten by the Apex Lions Club, serving the community since 1937 by providing services and financial support for people who are blind, have low vision or have print disabilities. To learn more about the services provided by the Apex Lions Club, go to apexlions.org.
As I mentioned, I’m Cas Shearin and I work with Disability Rights North Carolina, or DRNC, on our communications team. Some quick information about DRNC. We are an independent 501C3 nonprofit organization and a member of the National Disability Rights Network. We are called the Protection and Advocacy Organization for North Carolina, the P&A. Every state and territory plus the Native American Consortium have a P&A. There are 57 of us. In North Carolina, DRNC does a wide variety of work on behalf of the nearly 3 million disabled people throughout the state. You can learn a lot about the work we do on our website, disabilityrightsnc.org.
I’ve been with the agency for 15 years in various positions and absolutely love what this committed, passionate team of people accomplished on behalf of people with disabilities, always with the needs and desires of disabled people centering our work. As you may know, June 1st kicked off the Atlantic hurricane season and according to WRAL, which is a Raleigh based television station that has a very strong meteorologist on its team, trends show every summer, temperatures are getting hotter and hotter, bringing real world impact, and hurricanes that come further inland.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA forecasts up to 17 named storms for this hurricane season. They are also forecasting a range of 12 to 17 total named storms, meaning they would have winds of 39 miles an hour or higher. Of those, five to nine could become hurricanes with winds of 74 miles an hour or higher. And of those, one to four could be major hurricanes, category three, four, or five with winds of 111 miles an hour or higher. We’ve certainly seen the devastating effects hurricanes can have in North Carolina, bringing high winds, widespread flooding, and tremendous loss of life, as well as lives forever altered due to loss of housing and even the loss of entire communities. But hurricanes aren’t the only disasters affecting people in North Carolina. There are others to consider.
Today we’re going to focus on disability and disaster, and the legal rights of disabled individuals during a disaster. With me today is Curtis Hill, an advocate at DRNC who’s an expert on disability and disaster. Curtis joined DRNC in April, 2019, as an advocate for our emergency management and disaster relief efforts where he assisted people with disabilities affected by Hurricane Florence. In 2020, he expanded his role to focusing on helping North Carolinians with disabilities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based in Columbus County, though here in Raleigh, in the studio with me today, he’ll provides local support to help disabled people overcome barriers, access funding, and secure much needed services. He is committed to DRNC, reaching underserved communities across the state.
Raised in eastern North Carolina, Curtis brings a personal connection to the community as well as a wealth of nonprofit experience to his role at DRNC. In his spare time, Hill is often seen marshaling collective action on community issues and advocating for local policy changes to advance the ideals of equity and social justice through various civic organizations in his community. I’m thrilled to welcome Curtis to the show today, and we’re going to focus on two important aspects of disaster. The first one is prepare, prepare, prepare. And the second one is, when disaster hits, know your rights so you can advocate for yourself and others. Curtis, thanks so much for being here today.
Curtis Hill:
Thank you, Cas, for the invitation, and I’m glad to be here to tell you a little bit about how to prepare for a disaster because we never know when a disaster is going to occur, but we also know that we need to prepare because we just never know.
Cass Shearon:
Exactly. Let’s kick off the conversation thinking a little more broadly about disasters in North Carolina because it’s not just hurricanes as I mentioned. So, what kinds of disasters are we talking about, Curtis?
Curtis Hill:
We’re talking about natural disasters. We’re talking about a flood, and that could be from a flash flood that might occur in your neighborhood. It could be from a tornado that might touch down in your neighborhood. It could also be a tornado and it could be a variety of different other things that would just… Natural earthquake maybe because sometimes we get little tremors here. Sometimes those kind of things are natural disaster things that occur.
As we’re thinking about this, the preparedness it takes must occur. And then also think about a fire. It might not be a natural disaster, but sometimes a fire could also be a disaster in a person’s life. And so thinking about what tools do I have to have to make sure that I can do this successfully or to overcome those successfully and to make sure I’m prepared? Because none of us know what might happen today or tomorrow, so therefore we have to prepare.
Cass Shearon:
What should we do to prepare for disaster? The disaster we hope is never going to happen, but it’s so important to be prepared.
Curtis Hill:
So, the one thing we all have to have, the first thing for preparedness is to have a plan. To understand your own risk and your own vulnerabilities. And when I say that, that means to make sure that you have an evacuation plan in your home, that you know where you’re going to meet up with family members in your home, making sure that you’ve got someone that’s going to check on you to make sure. Because sometimes when you’re a disability, it’s kind of difficult for you even to develop a plan and to make sure that you’ve got this close-knit network of folks that you can call on and that you’ve rehearsed a plan. Sometimes, you know how it is, we just have a plan and we just dust it off when we get ready for the emergency. But this plan here, you need to make sure that you review it every year, every season, to make sure that people, because sometimes people move, people die, all those kind of things, and sometimes they get sick or they’re not there.
We got to really make sure that that plan is secure and thinking about it. But now it’s hurricane season, so how do you prepare? That means that you got a plan. That means that where you’re going to go if a disaster happens. If they call for an evacuation in your area, that’s important. The second thing is not only to know, but making sure that I got the right materials with me as I’m going. For me as a person with a disability, I use forearm crutches. For me, I would make sure I have an extra set of forearm crutches. I would also make sure that I have, if I have a wheelchair that I might need, even though I don’t use it on a regular basis, I might want to have that with me because you just never know what’s going to happen.
Or if I have a walker, I might want to make sure I got that too. I want to make sure I have all that material with me because I never know where I might be because I might be able to walk today, but tomorrow, something else might want to happen. And I also want to make sure that I have some of my medications that are present with me, right?
Cass Shearon:
So important.
Curtis Hill:
Yeah, I want to make sure those. And I want to make sure I don’t only have my prescription, I want to have a digital copy of the prescription and I want go, before the disaster hits, I want to go to my pharmacy and get an extra list of it. I want to get, not a list of it, but I want to get an extra prescription for 15 days.
Cass Shearon:
Oh, I believe that.
Curtis Hill:
Because you never know what might happen. Those are the things that you want to make sure you do. And then if you are visual impairment, you want to make sure you got your cane that you use, you want to make sure you have an extra cane that you use, you want to make sure you got all your eyedrops that you have. Those things are very important. And you also want to make sure you got your dog with you and you want to make sure that dog has its food and also his shot records, all that information that you can have available.
You want to make sure that your dog is fine as you’re thinking about it. Cause sometimes, you want to make sure that you got your batteries, and the things that you like. Because sometimes we have special dietary concerns and you want to make sure that those are present with you as you’re preparing.
Cass Shearon:
You mentioned dogs. Did you mean dogs like a pet or did you mean dogs as in a service animal?
Curtis Hill:
Well, even if you’re a service animal, we want to make sure that service animal, because if you’re a person with a disability, visual impairment, a lot of times you use a service animal. But even if you don’t have a service animal and you want to take your dog with you to a shelter, you want to make sure that you understand those rights with your regular dog, and you want to make sure that at least you got your food.
Now, a service animal will be able to go into a shelter with you like everybody else, and it won’t be any kind of thing different for you. And it shouldn’t be a section they say, “Well, it’s a section just for people with disabilities.” Because what we believe in and what the state has said is that we want to make sure that people are integrated within the sheltering process. Because as you know in North Carolina, the last time that we had a major hurricane here, people were housed for months in a shelter. That’s not typical, but we want to make sure that you’ve got at least three to four days of food and things with you, and water.
Cass Shearon:
Right. Yeah. Because even though they are going to be preparing food or having food for people who are being housed in these shelters, it may not meet the dietary requirements that people may have.
Curtis Hill:
Correct. Right. And it’s your responsibility to prepare. Even though they’re going to give you the basic things, but all of us have to have a preparedness plan that we’re using.
Cass Shearon:
On our website, Curtis, you and your team have done a great job putting together lists and lists and lists of things that people might want to consider. So, can you go through the most essential components of what people would want to put in, as you call it, a go kit?
Curtis Hill:
Typically what we want to talk about first is, we want to make sure you got your first documents that you need for your go kit. All right? That means that you want to have a copy of your ID, right? All right. You want to make sure you got a copy of that so it’s secure. Then you also want to make sure that you have your medical documentation and those kind of things, your insurance cards and all those kind of things. You want to make sure you got copies and put that in there. You also want to ask sure that you got your social security card because if something happens and you’ve got to fill out a form, they got to have a copy of it. We want to make sure those are there. We also want you to make sure that you’ve got your insurance papers that you use all the time.
We want to make sure that you copy of your flood insurance. You want to make sure you got your homeowner’s insurance. You want to make sure those things are important in preparing because once a disaster happens, the faster you’re able to have your insurance and get them out there, that gives you an opportunity to recover faster. And because if you don’t have insurance, then now you need to make the plan to get the insurance that you need. And my rule of thumb, if you live in North Carolina, you might need to have some flood insurance. Even if you’re not typically in a flood zone, you always want to make sure you got it because that helps you recover a lot faster. And you also want to make sure that you don’t only just have fire insurance, but you want to make sure that you got wind and hail insurance.
That’s critical with natural disasters. And now is the time to get those documents and get those policies in place, so your recovery process will be a lot easier. Because even though we talk about, “Well, FEMA’s going to help.” Do you know the maximum that FEMA gives people is about $35,000? And that’s a total destruction of your home and that’s all they’re going to give. That’s not enough money to really fully recover. So, therefore that’s why it’s important for you to take the most steps that you need to prepare. Then we also want to make sure that you got your bank information and you also want to carry some cash with you. You also want to draw a couple hundred dollars ’cause you never know because if the lights go out, you can’t use your Apple Pay and all those kind of things that we like to use and those kind of cards.
You also want to make sure that you’ve got your assistant animal pet records. Copies of those are very important, their shot records. Then your personal documents. Your marriage certificate, your treasured photos, your family history records, your birth certificate. You want to make sure those very important heirlooms that you think are family important, you want to make sure those are with you. Then you want to make sure that you’ve got some important numbers. Those important family members, you want to make sure that you share that with them before you are leaving and after you leave. You want to make sure you got everybody’s up-to-date numbers and you also want to give that to your care team or the people that are going to help you evacuate. You want to make sure they’re knowing about it.
I mean, this [inaudible]. We’ve started this thing called Neighbor for Neighbor where you are able to go talk to a neighbor of yours and that neighbor helps you prepare and helps and checks on you because we realize that’s the person that’s right there. They understand your needs, you’re comfortable with that person and you trust them and that person can help you make the right decisions and help you prepare. Then we’re also talking about prescription information. You want to have your lease, your utility bills, your school records, your diplomas. You want to have that stuff too because you never know, it’s hard to recreate that stuff.
Then you also want to have your adoption papers, employment records, social security card. Those are important things that need to be present. Then also as we’re thinking about preparing, so that’s your list of security documents. Then you got to do just like everybody else. You got to have your bottled water, you got to have some couple changes of clothes. You got to have three or four days. Because I live in Eastern North Carolina, so my rule of thumb when disaster happens, I’m going to have me at least five days ’cause I know I’m going to be without power about six days. That’s just how it rolls that way.
For everybody, we’ve got to think that way, especially when you’re disabled. You got to think about what’s going to happen. If I have special hygiene issues or something like that, I got to make sure I got my diapers and all that kind of stuff present with me, or those kind of things that make it’s good for me. Those are very important pieces that you got to have, your food, your water, your flashlights, your batteries, your clothing. Your clothing, those things are important and critical for your preparing for disaster.
Cass Shearon:
At the local level, Curtis, if someone has concerns about what to expect in the time of disaster, should they reach out now to their local emergency management agency?
Curtis Hill:
Yes. So, this is how it is in the state of North Carolina. We’ve got a hundred counties and then we’ve got all these towns and cities and those kind of things. But the person that’s responsible for the preparedness plans for your community is your county emergency management. Now they take information from your cities and those kind of things that help them develop those plans. And the state government has some play in those, but the main person that’s going to help you prepare and has those plans is your-
Cass Shearon:
Emergency management-
Curtis Hill:
Emergency management, sorry, emergency management person. That person is the point person and they’re going to be running things in their offices. In some areas, those are great big, they have big staff in some counties and in other counties it’s two or three people. Therefore, it’s important for each one of us as citizens in North Carolina to make our own preparation for it. Don’t rely on them to say they’re going to take care of me. Don’t say because, “Well, I signed up for them and they should make sure they have something for me.” Because if you’re without oxygen, you need to make sure that you’ve got a generator that can take care of you and you got to have the cash and the gas to put in it. And if you’re disabled, you need somebody actually assist you.
Also sometimes with people with disabilities, we’re timid to go evacuate. We say, “I’m not going to evacuate because I just want to be in my home.” That might be true, but sometimes you can get isolated from folks and it’s harder to come get you once the storm is raging and things are happening. So, for people with disabilities, we want you to move as swiftly out of harm’s way as possible. As soon as you hear that thing, as soon as you hear a storm is coming your way, that means you need to start preparing in your mind and checking to make sure what my plan’s going to be. You don’t need to wait till last two hours or four hours or five hours or a day. You have to start preparing ahead of time to make sure your personal assistant that you might need is present. You’ve got to start doing that as it starts to happen.
Cass Shearon:
As we’re taping this show, right now, there’s a storm brewing out there in the Atlantic, not sure what’s going to happen to it, but so for people just to kind of be thinking when they see that on the news, that might be a good prompt maybe?
Curtis Hill:
Yes.
Cass Shearon:
To go, “Let me just double check on everything, make sure I’ve got everything in line,” and then just hope for the best and don’t have to worry about it. Because you don’t want to wait till you get an order to evacuate. That’s too late.
Curtis Hill:
Right.
Cass Shearon:
I’m sorry, were you [inaudible]-
Curtis Hill:
And you also want to make sure that whoever you have to help you secure your home, you want to make sure that that process is taken in. Because if you’ve got board up windows and all that kind of stuff, you want to make sure that it’s been done in advance of what’s going to happen. That takes time. That takes preparation because everybody’s doing it. You got to make sure you got the right gas and you don’t want to just be flooding the stores, just getting all this stuff, but you want to make sure you’re prepared. That’s right.
Cass Shearon:
Your nickname is like Curtis “Be Prepared” Hill. But like hurricanes and mudslides and floods and things like that, as you mentioned, are all considered disasters. Large fires as well, but also we’ve had another disaster that has affected our community. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’ve been doing when you’ve sort of shifted in some of your work toward looking at the pandemic?
Curtis Hill:
Cas is talking about the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the nation and the world. And so disability rights, we pivoted to really talk about, because we realized people with disabilities have access problems to getting access to credible information. That means that something that’s [inaudible] sometimes we can’t just get all our information off YouTube and all those kind of places on Facebook. Sometimes you need to have a conversation with your doctor and we realize that so many barriers were there for people with disabilities to get access to a COVID vaccine.
And so our team started vaccinating folks and doing some great work all over North Carolina with vaccination clinics. And we also had a hotline where people could call us if you got a problem with getting a vaccine, so we could help you. Because we realize that if you put a computer screen and those kind of things, sometimes that’s a barrier for some people. Sometimes those are complicated systems that they just can’t communicate, they just can’t handle. But at Disability Rights North Carolina, we’re able to help you get that vaccine in community and those kind of things.
That was such an important and valuable work that we were doing because we realized, because we were going in communities where folks said they weren’t going to get vaccinated, but we were able to vaccinate some folks and we’re still doing that work and we’re still able to vaccinate first time people. I think it’s because of the personal touch, those conversations when folks realized, “Yes, I might have misunderstood the information,” but when someone with a disability who they can see comes to them, they’re like, “Okay, this guy must really know,” and they can trust you and they can bond with you. Those are the most important things of that project that we’re doing. So, it’s very impactful.
Cass Shearon:
And we’re also collaborating with community partners who are actually the clinicians who are delivering the vaccines. But you guys have been doing a lot of the groundwork, the grassroots sort of work, making sure that various organizations and people and faith groups and as many people with disabilities can be connected. If anybody listening to this has any questions about access to vaccines or shelter materials or your rights during a disaster, our website has a tremendous amount of information.
You can go in and type in disaster in the search and all sorts of materials will come up because we’re talking about a lot of stuff, so I don’t want people to feel like, “Oh my goodness, this is so much. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get it all written down right now. How can I make sure and see all this?” So, one of the things I wanted to ask you, Curtis, is what you’re learning from the community as you are out and about doing all the disaster work you’ve done and are doing, what are you learning from the communities that you’re touching?
Curtis Hill:
I’m learning that the communities, they are trying to prepare the best they can. And realizing that if you make less than a thousand dollars a month, that’s hard to prepare in a budget like that. Sometimes you have to think about it. We used to give people disaster buckets and then when you would go back to reclaim the disaster bucket in the time of disaster, everything in the bucket would already been used because they’re using that for their daily lives. So, because sometimes it might take them buying one piece of their disaster bucket once a month out of their budget because that’s important because they still have to prepare.
As we all know, everything is going up in our financial things and those kind of things. I don’t care if you have a job. It seems like everything at the grocery store is going higher and higher and those kind of things. So, still thinking about and being proximate with folks and listening to them is so important for the community. I learned so much about the communities when I go there because they give you inspiration to continue to do the work, then you realize why you’re here. Because you’re helping them in the most difficult times of their lives. Because when the disaster happens, we were up in Bertie County when the tornado ravaged through right on the ground, as proximate as you can get a couple days out.
And we were able to see and bringing community together and realizing that they have the tools necessary within that community to transform it and to realize that you got to stay together, you got to work together. And realizing that disaster recovery work takes a long time. We’re still recovering from Hurricane Matthew and Florence. They’re still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, which was so many years ago. Almost 20 some years ago. So, realizing that that process takes a while, but you got to be having the tools that’s necessary to make sure that you’re able to overcome it and not make that be a devastating component of your life.
Cass Shearon:
Curtis, you started with the agency in 2019 after Florence. We wound up being in a lot of disaster shelters following Florence and you mentioned how long so many people were in them, and we issued a report from that. From that, I think you and others on your team have worked really hard with the state and with local organizations to make sure that disabled people are considered when sheltering is happening to make sure that the rights of disabled people are protected when they are being forced into shelters.
You’ve also beautifully noted to me before, I remember you saying how people who work in shelters are there because they want to help people, they want to do good, but that we have to understand that they’re being really stressed as well. And oftentimes themselves have been evacuated from their communities while trying to help people who have been displaced. And so that has resulted in some hardships in some of these shelters. But you guys have worked really hard to raise awareness about that. And tell me about the changes that you think have happened. We’ve got a couple minutes here.
Curtis Hill:
The state of North Carolina is institute what they call functional assessment teams. Functional fast teams, are what we call them. Those teams are important because they’re able to go into a sheltering situation and bring about some changes that people might need. So, they go and monitor the things and make sure people with disabilities are getting the resources and things they need within the shelter. And then we’ve also looked at the different shelters, been to shelters. As you’ve been to a shelter, been through trainings where we’re able to talk about trauma informed. That’s been one of our hallmarks of disability rights because it’s such a traumatic issue to make sure that shelter workers are trauma informed because we understand that it’s a traumatic experience for everybody.
That means that you have trauma sensitivities because it’s not just a rainstorm or something like that. This is everybody’s lives. I can go back in my mind. Before I was working at Disability Rights, I was at a that tarmac in Whiteville at the airport and this family is Blackhawked in from Pender County to Columbus County. And the only thing they had was their bag. And in the bag it had all their belongings. It was a husband and a wife, they were in their seventies, then they had a daughter who was disabled. And you just see that, and they were just crying and they had been waiting and waiting at the top of their house and those kind of things. All those kind of things. So, it’s important that we are prepared because you just never know. And he’s like, “It never happened before,” but that time it did. And so you got to really make sure that you’re prepared.
Cass Shearon:
If someone winds up having to evacuate and is in a shelter and is having some accessibility needs, what should someone do in that situation?
Curtis Hill:
Initially, if you’re having some needs or some things, issues going on, you need to contact the shelter manager. If that shelter manager is not being responsive to you, you need to contact Disability Rights North Carolina, and then we are able to talk with them and talk with the county, the county emergency management person, and see if we can figure out what needs you can do and see if they can get those happen.
But it’s important that you initially… Because sometimes people are timid and say, “Well, I don’t really want to say anything to them,” and then they go to someone above them. But sometimes it’s just best to always start there to give somebody opportunity to correct the problem. ‘Cause sometimes people aren’t aware about your disabilities and things like that. So, you have to let people know that you’re having problems and what those things are.
Cass Shearon:
And so that’s that second piece about being a self-advocate and then also helping other people with disabilities self-advocate as well.
Curtis Hill:
Yes.
Cass Shearon:
You are listening to Legal Matters. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. I’ve been Cas Shearin reading for the North Carolina Reading Service. Today’s episode is underwritten by the Apex Lions Club, serving the community since 1937 by providing services and financial support for people who are blind, have low vision or have print disabilities.
To learn more about the services provided by the Apex Lions Club, go to apexlions.org. The content of this program is intended for people who are blind, have low vision or print disabilities. This broadcast is readily available as a podcast at our website, ncreadingservice.org. If you have comments or questions, please call us at (919) 832-5138. Curtis, thanks so much for being here today.
Curtis Hill:
Thank you again, Cas.