Although everyone is susceptible to stress during an emergency, some people may have more difficulty coping in an emergency. People who may have trouble include:
- People that are socially isolated
- Newcomers to the area
- People with limited English or French language skills
- People who have difficulty performing activities of daily living due to physical/emotional illness or disability
- People who are limited in their capacity to prepare for an emergency
- People who are limited in their capacity to assist dependants
You can play a role in preparing people in need for an emergency situation.
Look at your neighborhood, group or church to see who might need help during an emergency and, if you feel capable and willing, offer your assistance.
How you can help:
- Create a buddy system, a telephone call out tree, or arrange outreach visits.
- Have the person post their contingency plan in a visible spot like on the fridge or near the telephone.
Questions to ask to help someone make a plan:
- What would you do if services (i.e. Hydro, Meals on Wheels) were disrupted for a short time?
- How long do you feel you could manage by yourself?
- If you have medical equipment in your home that could fail as a result of a power disruption, what would you do? Is there manual back up?
- If you rely on battery back up, how long will it last?
- Where would you go if you needed to leave your home? Would you require assistance? Would you be able to rely on family? Have you made arrangements for pets?
- If you had to leave your home, whom would you tell?
- If your phone service were interrupted, would there be anyone checking on you?